FINAL STAGE - vs THE SIREN OF DEVOTION - NOVA ADMIN ANDROMEDA
[PHASE 1 - WELCOME TO THE SHOW]
[All combatants have a slew of 4 Quarter Notes coming their way! Each of these notes are coming in quick. Find a way to dodge or destroy them!]
Phoebe attempts to punch out the attacks before they reach her, but her fists go through it and the resulting damage and force knocks her down. Strangely the attacks have mass to them but bare fists go right through them.
January pulls out a Portable Portal and throws one at SCREAM'S ARIA and defends himself with one. The attack goes into the Portal and out back at the enemy causing part of its dark aura around its. head to fade
Planting her feet, Spider hoists a currently bat shaped Error up and attempts to swing at the music note coming towards them.
Patrice shoots her quarter notes quartet, imagining them getting enveloped by a ball of light and floating around inside as if they're in a bubble, the ball flying back towards Scream's Aria and explodes at them.
"BATTER UP BITCHES! :)"
[Error's bat successfully repels the music sent Spider's way.]
[SCREAM'S ARIA attempts to launch it back, but it fails and takes the damage.]
[The Quartet of Quarters gets sent right back to SCREAM'S ARIA and explodes as soon as it reaches its head. With a grunt of pain and a step back, it continues to sing wildly You begin to notice the darkened aura around the enemy begins to fade. Slowly, it goes from black and now closer to grey, if not a very light shade of white. Damage seems to be piling up.]
[Luna launches a…]
"FLAMING FIREBALL!!!" she shouts as a eruption of fire both goes through the notes and causes damage
[...at the enemy and it causes the aura to fade to white even further.]
[Hinata uses Shadow Blitz to destroy the notes coming towards her. Chandra takes a page from Spider's book and repels the notes using his sword.]
Viper shakes herself out of her horrified expression as she draws her Dagger and imagines it having cold air coming off of it with a blue tint as she waves it at the notes as she yells with confidence "ICE SHIELD"
[The notes strike the ICE SHIELD and bounce back towards SCREAM'S ARIA who tanks the hit with a grin. The aura is now completely white.]
[PHASE 2 - WELCOME TO THE SHOW]
[With the opening act completed, using her free hand, SCREAM'S ARIA snaps her fingers and Phoebe gets up from being knocked over. Without warning, Phoebe tackles Luna, Hinata, January, and Chandra in quick succession, blasting them back towards the back of the CLCCC. Somehow, Phoebe is not under her own control. With a grin and a chuckle, SCREAM'S ARIA continues playing her music, switching to a new song, and launching much quicker notes to all of the combatants. A combination of quarters, eighths, and sixteenths are all launched from her cherry red guitar...]
PHASE TWO BGM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME6RtQgBMSI
Viper starts walking forward with her shield in front of her to block the notes "Why couldn't this be easy...we're just trying to do a good thing"
[The notes get repelled once more. You notice while holding the DAGGER OF THE AVATARS that the guitar is glowing a little bit. Within SCREAM'S ARIA'S lyrics, everyone with a SOUL SHARD very clearly hears the lines:
I'M NOT IN CONTROL OF ME
MY BODY, MY SOUL;
PLEASE HELP ME BREAK FREE!
from a woman's voice. This one, unlike what SCREAM'S ARIA is singing, is crying for help.]
[Viper's ICE SHIELD is currently at 100/100 DURABILITY. Oddly, it seems that while the notes have some physical weight to them, magically, there doesn't appear to be a lot going on. Strange.]
[Luna, Hinata, January, and Chandra are all fighting Tsukuyomi in the back of the room while also repelling the Music attacks. Luna shouts to The Gang, "keep going y'all, we'll handle Phoebe and get back to the fight when we can! Try to find a way to stop the music attacks!!! Gods GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME BITCH!"]
Patrice looks at the barrage of notes coming towards her, and shoots at them, imagining a ball of fire incinerating the notes and hitting the guitar, setting it on fire.
Continuing to bat notes away with Error, Spider starts to attempt to get closer to Scream's Aria and her guitar.
[While the fireball does set the Guitar on fire, SCREAM'S ARIA continues to play. The speed the notes come out slows down. Instead of the speedy eights and quarters, much slower halves and whole noted come out and in less frequency.]
[Spider gets closer and closer to the enemy Caster. She's in range to actually hit the guitar.]
[Noticing that THE GANG is inching ever closer to her guitar, SCREAM'S ARIA begins thrashing and swinging her guitar at VIPER and SPIDER. With the guitar no longer being played, the wild notes stop being cast. Her singing continues, however.]
Viper huffs and puffs as she attempts to use her shield to block a couple attacks then shield bash her as she speaks through gritted teeth "Just put the FUCKING guitar down"
[The shield bash works! SCREAM'S ARIA falls back a couple steps but her singing and thrashing continues. Your ICE SHIELD is currently at 90/100 durability!]
[Spider, Patrice, and Viper notice a woman get absolutely YEETED across the armory and nearly crash into the opposite wall. It appears that Luna, Hinata, Chandra, and January have found a way to neutralize their own target, if not temporarily. With the musical notes being non-existent, they start coming back into the fray.]
Using Error to deflect the notes coming at her, Spider takes a deep breath knowing that there may not be a second chance at this, and as she releases it they aim a powerful swing at the guitar.
[And what a powerful swing it was! With the addition of ERROR'S glitch magic adding to its weilder's swing, ERROR causes the guitar to explode into shrapnel, shrapnel that only hits SCREAM'S ARIA at that.]
"BOOYAH FLORA, WAKE THE FUCK UP!"
[SCREAM'S ARIA is on its last legs. With the rest of the group still trying to catch up and unable to act, Patrice, finish her off!]
Patrice takes a look at Scream's Aria. Then a shot at them. She imagines a beam of light shooting out from the golden revolver, enveloping them, stripping away the outside, as the chains holding the person inside breaks, letting them taking back control of themselves. [The beam erupts from the REVOLVER OF UNTOLD TRUTHS and envelops SCREAM'S ARIA. When the light fades, a woman curled up and bloody is on the ground. Her breathing is ragged and her eyes are shut. She manages to get out a weak,"What happe--ned?"]
Viper backs up from the woman to give her room but still keeps her shield up, not wanting to get a surprise attack as she speaks, "I think it's best if someone more...eloquent explains what happened" she glances around to see how everyone else is doing
[The woman does not respond. She looks to be in pain.]
Luna and Hinata arrive next to Viper. Luna still has her guard up, unsure if this is over, or if there's more than meets the eye. Hinata takes a deep breath and mutters, "we're hanging in there. Mana is still high, and we got Phoebe knocked out and away from us. I don't even know what happened? Was it the note that she tried to punch away??"
[You also notice Chandra and January kneeling on the ground. January looks winded but Chandra seems fine. The musclebound monk that is Phoebe at the other end of the armory is unconscious.]
Patrice approaches her carefully, gun still trained on her, and pokes her lightly with her right foot.
"Miss?"
[The woman does not respond. Being so close, however, you do notice something on her body. Something red. It's not blood, but this one is seemingly attached to her body.]
Patrice tries to pick up said red thing with her left hand, while her right hand is still holding the revolver, pointing it at her.
[It's a crystalline heart that's attached to her.]
Spider looks confused at the heart in Patrice's hand and glances down to where to connects with Flora.
[Via a wire, you notice it leads down to her chest. It reminds you of the devices Luna, Hinata, and January were equipped with only a month or so ago… IMP HEARTS!]
[And then the place goes completely dark. Nothing in the room can be seen other than a bright red glow coming from Flora's body. You also hear the laughing of a male coming from somewhere. On the very front wall of the CLCCC, a video feed appears with an absolutely outraged Spark Estelle staring daggers into The Gang.]
"How... in the MANY HELLS BELOW are you all in there!? This CANNOT BE HAPPENING!! It was finally my time to shine, my time to enact revenge on all those who would ruin my life! And now it's being taken away! Again! I-- you. YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!!! You may have taken away my extra magical power, but you still haven't defeated me! SCREAM'S ARIA!! DESTROY THE PLAYERS!!"
[You hear Spark muttering something in some weird indecipherable language. It almost sounds made up until you notice a weird beam of light overtake the video feed.]
[The intense red blinding glow also causes the room to rumble as the light becomes much larger. Or rather, Flora becomes much larger.]
Gripping Error defensively Spider backs away from the rapidly growing Flora. internally she's cursing this apparent round two and Spark though her eyes don't leave Flora as she squints to make her out through the light.
[You notice that whatever Flora is becoming, it's long and serpentine.]
[PHASE THREE: FINAL ENCORE]
[After a few moments have passed, and the rumbling stopped, the red glow dies down and SCREAM'S ARIA's new form appears to the group. A long serpentine figure with black and white scales, long claws, and incredibly sharp fangs equipped to its snake-like head makes this thing look less like a siren and more like a dragon. On its body, you notice something dangling on it. It looks similar to the Heart Patrice picked up previously. Perhaps it's a weak point on the monster?]
[PHASE THREE BOSS BGM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-RE4_l6Hk - THE SERPENT OF SPARK’S DEVOTION - SCREAM'S ARIA]
[Luna, Hinata, Chandra, January, and the now reawakened and renormalized Phoebe are all facing down the creature, ready to attack! One of January's portals seems to be acting up, however. He doesn't seem to be too perturbed about this. In fact, if you looked at him, you can tell he's grinning. Perhaps he's got some kind of an idea cooking up in his mind?]
THE FINAL BATTLE BEGINS AND YOU HAVE FIRST STRIKE!
[You notice the red heart looking thing is closer to its head in between its eyes. The monster isn't attacking despite it looking full of rage. Weird.]
Viper keeps her shield up as she looks over at Patrice and calls out, "Get behind me! I'll block it's attacks so you can stay at range!" she enters a defensive stance
[Viper's ICE SHIELD is still at 90/100 Durability. It should be able to resist some attacks.
You hear within its screeching a woman crying out,
Stop me! Defeat me!
My mind is not my own!
I can't help myself
End me so I can atone!!]
Spider frowns at the boss's strange behaviour. she decides to test the waters and starts moving closer with a tight grip on Error, ready to dodge if needed.
[And dodge you will because Scream's Aria notices Spider getting closer and attempts to bite at her, but Spider is able to dodge]
Watching Spider dodge, their girlfriend set up a barrier, and Patrice preparing to take a shot, Luna and Hinata clasp hands together and launch a strange ice ball encased in yellow magic and zooming directly towards the assumed weakpoint on the head.
At the same time, they shout, "PSYCHIC BLIZZARD ORB!!"
[But their attack misses, even with homing enabled giving them Advantage, so say the Gods of RNG. Scream's Aria casually dodges to the side to negate the damage.]
Chandra tries to go in for a slash with his Longsword, his LUNAR LAEVATEINN.
[It just barely misses.]
With a strong jump and a grunt, Phoebe attempts to punch out one of SCREAM'S ARIA'S eyes.
[Miss.]
January is still preparing something. His turn is skipped.
Patrice aims at the red heart and tries to shoot it, imagining the red heart cracked and broken as she does so. With the power of Patrice, and thus MOON MANTLE'S Control Magic, the shot is successful dealing damage and causing SCREAM'S ARIA to scream in agony.
Within the scream, everyone hears the following:
Keep going, you're almost there!
Break the lock on my heart
Show me what it means to care!]
[The video feed from before is still active. Spark looks like he's about to hurt someone physically. Watching his Creation fail to survive, watching his enemies succeed. He looks red with fury. With a button pressed on some remote near him, the group notices something fall to the ground with a soft foompf. Not just one 'something' either, but a whole group of somethings. Soft toys, stuffed animals. All in shapes of the Creatures The Players have rescued previously, just in miniature toy form. SHARDS OF LEGEND, ALL DESIGNED BY FLORA HERSELF.]
[With a growl and a pointing of its fingers, SCREAM'S ARIA leads the Shards to begin attacking The Players. In any other game, this would be similar to a popcorn enemy spawn while the Boss watches.]
-------
Luna shakes her head, "Are you fucking kidding me Flora?? You know you brought it against the wrong person! FIREBOLT!!!"
[Luna's Firebolt makes quick work of a line of 10 shards, all causing them to explode in flames and dealing significant damage to each!]
"THEY'RE WEAK TO FIRE Y'ALL, USE FIRE ON THEM, THEY'RE STUFFED ANIMALS!!!"
[Towards Viper, a yellow shiba inu plushie goes in for a bite on her arm. Towards Spider, one shaped like a small dragon with black scales causes blindness and attempts to slash with its claws. Towards Patrice, a winged lion plushie is using its talons to slash! The rest are also getting struck by the SHARDS.]
Patrice tries to shoot the plushie, imagining it burst into flames as she does so.
[It explodes! Perhaps attacking the Players with stuffed animals was a poor idea eh Spark?]
Oddly, while some members of The Players are having an easy time, some, like Chandra and Luna are getting absolutely swarmed by them, to the point where they are struggling to keep up with the rest of the group. The area begins to smell like charred fabric and the bodies are piling up. On Luna's body especially, she's taking lots of damage from the chaos, cuts and wounds beginning to mount. Chandra isn't faring much better.
Hinata is also not doing so well, but with her wings, she's able to get past most of them. With her short sword, Hinata tries to stab the crystal heart.
[And fails.]
She points the revolver towards the animals surrounding Luna and shoots at them, imagining them being set on fire.
[All of them explode into flames even singeing Luna a little bit in the process. Despite this, she calls out to Patrice saying, "Thank you!"]
Flinching as the world goes black Spider doesn't get time to block the dragon from latching onto her. Their ears start twitching and her other senses are now working desperately to keep track of things while she attempts to grab the dragon plush and pull it off of herself, Error clattering to the floor in the process.
"No worries!" Patrice shouts back. She then turns to the ones surrounding Chandra. "Heads up, Chandra!" she shouts, as she shoots at the animals surrounding him, imagining them set on fire as well.
[The slash barely grazes Spider as Error's bat clatters to the ground. Spider is able to pull it off of herself before it can deal more damage. The blindness effect is still active.]
"Shit! No no, it's okay, hang on. :/"
[THE MORPHING BLADE OF MALFUNCTION rolls back towards Spider's feet before SCREAM'S ARIA can pick it up, which it attempts to do and fails miserably. What an idiot :)]
[Wow. Getting bullied by a literal baseball bat.]
"Yeah and? :)"
[Rude.]
[ALL SHARDS attacking Chandra are also destroyed. Chandra shouts out, "Thanks!" and rushes towards the front where SCREAM'S ARIA is at.]
Phoebe goes for another punch on the Crystalline Heart.
[That one hits and another screech from SCREAM'S ARIA is let loose. It's not broken yet, but it's taken a LOT of damage!]
Viper uses her shield to block the plushie bite then uses her shield to bash the ever loving shit out of it
[The shiba inu plushie that looks like a bean version of her girlfriend Hinata attempts to bite into the ICE SHIELD but aside from a glancing blow, it doesn't break through. In fact, Viper's shield bash into it crushes the shard, killing it. You notice Hinata coming down from on high to stomp on it but realizes it was destroyed.]
"Whoops, oh well. Glad we're on the same page Viper. Let's finish off this nightmare so we can go home!" Hinata cheers
The loss of one of her senses is definitely getting to Spider, her body is tensed and the fur on their tail is fluffing up. With a low growl they hold the dragon in a death grip and attempt to start tearing into it with their teeth.
[So two things happen at the same time:
Because the darkness orb causing the Blindness status requires Concentration, feeling Spider's sharp jowls breaks that concentration. Spider is able to see once more.
She notices two distinct flavor profiles when chomping in. She tastes metal which is probably from the electronics controlling the Shard. And she tastes something oddly salty and shaped like a ball in the center of the Shard.
With the blindness effect negated, Spider notices it's a ball of light. A soul. ]
[In fact, with the majority of the shards being destroyed, everyone in the room notices spheres of light, all of them in a variety of colors and sizes, heading towards the ceiling as if looking for a way out. They cast an odd glow on the still dimmed CLCCC, giving the room an aethereal vibe.]
[With the majority of the Shards destroyed, SCREAM'S ARIA'S IMP HEART nearly broken, and the video feed no longer showing Spark but instead a completely empty Nova Square, SCREAM'S ARIA looks like it's about to collapse. It doesn't seem to even want to fight anymore. It lost its will to continue.
Within another roar, perhaps from Spark trying to rekindle one last hurrah to defeat The Players, you all hear the following in a clearly human woman's voice:
You're almost there. Finish me off! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!]
Viper smiles at Hinata as she nods in agreement as she mutters, "Time to fight with my mighty shield" she takes a step back and throws her shield at the IMP HEART with all of her strength
[VIPER'S ICE SHIELD does not reach the IMP HEART unfortunately, but Hinata flies up, catches it, and throws it directly into the heart. It shatters into red glass pieces which causes SCREAM'S ARIA to scream once more.]
Luna and Chandra both cast a dual Fireball into the serpent with a smile on both of their faces. For the first time ever, the moons are united as one.
[The creature is set aflame but has yet to detransform. It seems to be attempting to hold on for dear life. The room is no longer dim but brightened by the fire on the Dragon.]
Phoebe is watching her husband still struggle with the portal and instead slams her fist into the now fiery serpent's body.
[It grunts in pain.]
Patrice aims at the serpent. She imagines a ball of light enveloping it, stripping away the serpent to reveal the human underneath.
"May the light remind you of what once was," she whispers, as she pulls the trigger.
[Critical hit.]
[Upon the light enveloping SCREAM'S ARIA, the serpent explodes out of its form and on the floor is a wounded and charred woman doused in blood. A ball of light flies out of the previous form and joins the many others on the ceiling. She doesn't look like she's doing well at all, but she is breathing. Somehow, Ashley/Flora gets up onto her two feet and apprehends Hinata, holding a knife to her throat.]
"No one fucking MOVE! You move, say goodbye to your daughter Sol. I cannot lose this! I MUST NOT LOSE THIS! SPARK NEEDS YOU ALL TO DIE, FOR THE SAKE OF NOVA HEART!" Andromeda screams out, panicked. Hinata is as cool as a cucumber somehow. Even with her life in the hands of a madwoman, she does not worry. She simply winks to her group. The knife begins to pierce her neck, causing a drip of blood to seep.
January, who has finally finished his concentration, speaks: "You dare harm my family? Fine. GUARDIAN QUARTET, ACTION!" He opens his final Portal Passage. From it, three Creatures of Legend run out and dash directly into Ashley Andromeda. The Creatures of Legend, toted as THE GUARDIAN QUARTET, or at least this trio, all beat the ever loving SHIT out of Flora. You thought the damage from before was a lot, but this. This is just brutal. A shaggy grey wolf bites and chomps at the target. A sea-creature attempts to drown her into its water bubble magic. The lion-maned eagle swipes claws at it. And after a few moments, they all return through the same portal. Hinata is able to get away before the damage is done. Ashley Andromeda / Flora / SCREAM'S ARIA has been defeated. ALL CREATURES OF LEGEND HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY FREED. January looks on with a grin, "Nobody harms my family and gets away with it!"
Phoebe just looks on in disbelief but exhales through her nose. She's back to her normal form.
Chandra and Luna just look at each other in confusion. They're also smiling to one another?
Patrice puts her revolver back into her pocket. "Well, that was... intense," she states simply.
Viper huffs and puffs as she keeps her dagger drawn but holds it at her side as she speaks, "Holy fucking SHIT, I think we should get the hell out of here" she puts her head on a swivel, just incase
[The former CLCCC is quiet and calm.] Luna nods in agreement, still heavily wounded from her battle with the Shards. "Y-yeah...i think that's a good idea." She just about collapses from her injuries but Hinata catches her. "Definitely. Gotta get my girlfriend some first aid." Chandra, January, and Phoebe all watch over the area. January summons one final portal to collect the Souls that were released.
Despite being wound up from the fight, Spider nods in agreement then looks towards flora wondering what they should do about her.
"I'm sure she'll be okay Spider :). Besides, I have heavy doubts Luna and Hinata want anything to do with her, especially considering their pasts. While they partially have Flora to thank for their existence, they also have a lot of issues with her specific brand of experimentation. It's. Not good. I think leaving her here is the play. :) I'm sure Spark will come get her. :) Maybe."
Luna is still passed out in Hinata's arms. Hinata says out loud, "Y'all ready to go? I can handle teleportation for all of us."
"Souls are released and we finally removed most of Spark's mana base. All set here." January, Phoebe, Chandra, and Rebecca nod.
Viper looks over at Hinata and nods quickly, "I need....to flop on a bed and pass the hell out" she sheathes her dagger
Hinata is focusing on the whole party. Everyone seems to be covered in her now iconic yellow magical glow.
Hinata snaps her fingers and The Gang and everyone else affiliated with them disappears.
Hours later, Flora coughs while most of her body is broken. "Urgh. Fuck it! Screw this shit. Fuck Spark, fuck Nova Heart. I'm done. I hope you suffer greatly for your crimes, asshole." She manages to find the power to teleport out of there, especially considering Spark hasn't rescued her yet.