[Floating down gently from the heavens, or at least Nova Tower in this case, is a man cloaked head to toe in a pitch black cloak, head exposed with an eyepatch on its left eye. As he descends onto the scene, he speaks some phrases that no one is able to understand, words that might be in a different language of some sort. Regardless of the phrasing, it seems to affect the sky above them.]
[The darkened clouds begin to swirl and a strong wind picks up around The Players. He finally lands on the ground and stares at the party, growling. With a bit of finesse, his hands reach into his sheath and he pulls out a massive claymore out, one shining with golden aura. A golden aura reminiscent of the one Patrice noticed covering the final LIP module.]
[Oddly, this man does not attack. It seems his whole idea is to protect the final Module from being broken. With the wind picking up, his hood flies off and everyone in the party recognizes the enemy.]
[Spider might remember encountering him during a cult worshipping session back in Meridian. Viper might recognize him as standing next to Andromeda, Spark, and Hypernova at the Final Meeting Before Showtime. Patrice spent time with this man at Earthbound Roasters, getting to know him a little bit. Luna knows this man personally. He's married to her Creator. Hinata... was created by him.]
[Hinata looks like she's about to faint from the utter stress being put on her shoulders as she calls out, "Dad? Why? You know we need to break these right??"]
[Sol shakes his head and speaks with a tone lacking any emotion, "There's no point. Spark's control is absolute. Just let it happen and all will be well." With great struggle, as if being unable to stop himself from doing something, he mutters more words unintelligible by the Party and cause Luna and Hinata to nod. They turn around and face the group, eyes crimson and blades pointing towards their friends. Eclipse Blade has been compromised.]
[Chandra growls at Sol, "YOU MONSTER! THAT'S YOUR FUCKING DAUGHTER!"]
[Sol shakes his head once more, "Please... release me from his control. I cannot stop it myself." He enters into a defensive stance with his Solar Blade protecting the final Module.]
[Chandra enters an offensive stance with a black shadowy aura covering his fists. "Fine. Selene, Aurora, BRING IT!" and dashes into the fray.]
[BGM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pnQJ_mJSs4 - THE CORRUPTION OF THE SUN - VS. NOVA LEADER SOL]
Patrice trains her gun at Sol, imagining him being flung up and backwards onto the wall behind him as the ball of magic hardens and adheres to the wall, effectively keeping him there temporarily, before pulling the trigger.
[It works as intended. Sol is currently stuck to the wall behind him via a hardened blob of magic. The Claymore continues to block the LIP module. Patrice's *Revolver of Untold Secrets* has two bullets remaining.]
Chandra flings himself into battle intending to keep Eclipse Blade at bay and away from The Gang. Eclipse Blade Sun and Moon go in for the chase, falling directly for Chandra’s ploy. Despite how many times they slash and cast spells, they don’t manage to deal any damage to him outside of a very light scratch.
Viper stares at her blade as she imagines it being red with heat coming off of it, her eyes flicking directly to Sol as she points her blade at Sol and waves it around and confidently speaks "FLAME THROW"
[With Sol stuck to the wall, he has no way to dodge or deflect Viper's attack. The thrown fireballs strike part of his cloak and the sound of glass breaking is heard. Sol groans from pain as his cloak is set aflame, "Gah.. fucking." Underneath his cape, a shining red something glows where the Flameballs were Thrown. Perhaps a weakpoint has been found?]
Chandra is continuing to try and handle Eclipse Blade but is struggling to keep up with their speed. He shouts out to the party, "Hey can I have some help with these two? Two on one isn't exactly fair."
[Even if they are acting as one unit.]
With Viper and Patrice taking on Sol Spider quite literally jumps in to help Chandra. She appears with a blinding flash of sparks and lunges at Luna aiming Error's strike at her ribs.
[Luna attempts to block Error, but at the last moment, Error shines red and breaks through something on her chest. A sickening crunch is heard as well what sounds like glass breaking. "GODS FUCK YOU SP-- -wait where am-- AAAAUGH!!" Her voices swaps from glitchy to her normal self and back to glitched. Much like Sol before her, something shining red comes from her hoodie like a light of some sort.]
[Hinata is in the back of the combat scene doing her usual cheerleading and sending Rhythm Rampage buffs for her party. Magical aura is leading from her directly to Luna and Sol, channeled via their heads. She also has something shining red on her chest coming from her kimono. A hand is on her face, however, as she looks almost confused about her situation.]
Spider takes a step back glancing from Error to Luna as something clicks. As she notices Hinata buffing the others she, almost reluctantly decides to tackle her first and teleports over to her aiming Error's hit at the red light.
[Hinata is doing what she does best. When she sees Spider attempting to crash into her, Hinata teleports around the area and Spider gives chase. Eventually, Spider is able to get a clean shot in with Error. Error's magic strengthens its blow and breaks through the red light, the sound of glass breaking alongside it. Hinata, with her eyes no longer crimson, asks, "what happened? Where am I?! Why am I covered in blood!?" Upon hearing its teammate get hurt, Selene rushes Spider and casts Fireball at her, but Chandra manages to intercept it, causing the fireball to disintegrate. As Hinata is no longer buffing the party, both Selene and Sol seem much weaker as a result.]
[Sol is struggling against his binds, muttering things in indiscernable languages at it. The flames from Viper continue to eat at his cloak and the red glowing thing begins to make its unguarded appearance possible. Viper is able to tell that the red glowing thing seems to be a device of some sort that's directly connected to Sol's body. It's rather rigid in shape and made of a vaguely heart-shaped glass. The glowing heart is blinking.]
[Sol swings his claymore at Patrice but with great difficulty. The swing is slow, even jittery, but due to the weight behind the swing, it’s nearly unblockable.]
Viper takes notice of the glowing red heart as she points her sword and it and waves it around as she speaks confidently, "FLAME BOLT" hoping that her shot connects
[With Sol still being stuck to the wall behind him and being so focused on dealing damage and not on defense, the FLAME BOLT connects with the red heart and after the sound of glass breaking, he looks around at the group saying, "Wait... wh-where am I? Who are y--"]
[The Claymore is still in mid-swing and is still coming for Patrice. He's trying to stop it before it connects.]
Patrice quickly takes a few steps back, away from the path of the claymore. "Hello, sir. Nice to have you back with us. Hopefully."
[Sol looks like he's seen a ghost as his claymore grinds to a halt, missing Patrice by a country mile and then some. He looks very confused as he speaks, "Where am I? I-- ugh, what the in the name of the Many Demons Below is happening? I-- Why can't I move?" It's at this moment that he notices Luna and Chandra fighting over in the distance. "Why are they... ghh--- my head.. my GODS DAMNED HEAD. HURTS!" He is breathing incredibly hard to the point where he could be close to hyperventilating.]
[With two of the crystalline hearts seemingly no longer working, the still possessed and very strong Luna continues to try to break through Chandra's nearly impenetrable defenses. Perhaps being paired up with the one person she could never beat herself was fate, but then with a deep breath and pushing herself into her Hyperfocus mode, she launches herself directly into Chandra's abdomen with her now set aflame blade. Chandra is able to parry her attacks with his own blade, able to consistently deny any damage done to either party but especially eyeing the final crystalline heart. His defenses aren't completely impenetrable, however, as he takes multiple slices and stabs to his own already decaying body. With a scream and a shout, Chandra puts his sword away in favor of his fists as he looks for an opening to punch the crystal heart and break it. It takes him a few hits from the still possessed catgirl but he manages to find a way to break through with a genuinely frightening shattering sound. Luna collapses under her own weight when the device breaks, her blade coming dangerously close to impaling herself. The damage is already done, however.]
[The party hears a single clap coming from somewhere as Chandra searches for the location. Unfortunately, nobody in the group, Chandra, Sol, and Hinata included, are able to see where the clapping is coming from. The sound stops shortly after as someone walks out from Nova Tower's entrance. Oddly, the person who steps out isn't Spark and instead Tsukuyomi who quickly runs to Sol's side. Tsukuyomi looks on the scene with confusion in her mind and heart as she asks, "what in the hells happened here? Is everyone alright?"]
[The Final LIP module is now uncovered by the claymore but Patrice can see the forcefield still covering it. The aura surrounding it reminds her of the same kind she was imprisoned by with Viper just weeks ago.]
"Mom??? We were attacked by Spark. Where did you come from?!" Chandra looks very confused.
"Well I figured that if Janny hasn't come back in months, he had to have been part of Nova. And considering.... all of this, with my daughter on the ground, her girlfriend over there on the ground, and you bleeding, I think my reasoning is correct. I wanted to assist, but it seems you all had it under control."
[The Illusory Moon is still in the sky.]
"I was WHAT?" Sol continues to be stuck to the wall. The binds are becoming loose however.
Despite the fight being over Spider does not relax. Instead she's fidgety and tense her gaze fixed on the LIP module and not paying too much attention to Tsukuyomi.
[It is projecting the moon. Menacingly...]
Viper quickly rushes to Luna's side to assess the damage to her and see if she needs any bandages
[Despite some shallow cuts and bruising on her skin, she seems fine. The shattered device hangs loosely to her undershirt, but it's still largely intact. Oddly, Viper knows the device is called an IMP HEART, but she doesn't know why this knowledge was imparted to her.]
Viper takes the IMP HEART into her hand and inspects it closely.
[She notices that the device is still connected to her, stuck to her body via a wire. This wire is sparking however due to the damage sustained. The glass covering it is covered in an aura of some kind, similar to the kind that surrounds the LIP Modules when they're trying to reconstruct themselves. No other data or features can be seen, other than the fact that it's vaguely heart-shaped.]
[Chandra, on the other hand, is dripping ash on the ground, like an hourglass losing its sand. He's definitely injured, but regardless of his status, he's relatively fine. With the affixition of bandages, he's able to get up though wobbly.]
Patrice looks at the module and shoots twice in quick succession. The first shot, she imagines, will shatter the forcefield, while the second will hit the module, making it explode. With the first shot, the forcefield explodes into golden sparkles. The anti-magic bullet met the anti-magic forcefield and negated it, much like how a negative 1 and another negative 1, when multiplied, will become positive. As for the final LIP module, it explodes and the Illusion of the Full Moon finally fades with a loud zap akin to an old tube television having its power cut off suddenly.]
[Patrice's REVOLVER OF UNTOLD TRUTHS is currently empty. It will take some time to reload. With the Revolver out of bullets, Sol's shackle, which pinned him to the wall, finally lets go. He brings his arm down and rubs it. Soreness and fatigue had finally gotten to it. He will be out of commission for a short time while he rests.]
[The sky above them is finally calmed. The once swirling clouds and rampaging moon has stopped and all IMP HEARTS stop working. All is calm. All is right.]
[Luna finally wakes up from her rest, and much like Sol and Hinata before her, is incredibly confused as to where she is. Or why there's a shattered heart-shaped crystal attached to her body. Her eyes swap to Amethyst as she examines it more closely. Krystal asks to no one in particular, "Where did I get this? When did I get this? What... is this?"]
[Everything is quiet in the area save for a soft breeze. Not even the heartbeat of the city, something The Players have heard this entire time, is audible. Why isn't it audible?]
[Hinata turns her head towards the south of the district, as if hearing something inaudible to everyone else except for Spider and Luna due to their enhanced hearing. It sounds like a whistle. Or perhaps a song. A very soft song being played coming from the south.]
[Something is coming. Prepare yourself. The Nightmare of Nova Square is not yet finished.]