28 - The Hungry Forest (Final Battle)

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: At the heart of the mysterious forest lies a magical trap.
When: Nov 14, evening
Where: Within the forest
Summary: Working together, and with the (reluctant) help of some menaced cultists, the rescuers have pierced the wooden wall into the heart of the forest.






The sky is clearly visible here, but it’s an evening one – it’s taken the day to work their way through this far. Those with some astronomy knowledge will also be able to tell it’s a sky on Earth, and anyone who can climb up above the treeline will see a vast, mountainous and wooded area, with the lights of roads, train tracks and small towns glittering here and there. They're clearly not in the Heavens anymore. Somehow, in their journey through the forest, the rescuers have emerged onto the Near Shore.

An icy breeze is blowing, and although the vegetation is unseasonably green and lush in this clearing, there are patches of snow visible at the foot of some of the trees, hinting that they're fairly far up the mountain.

Rescues

The clearing here at the heart of the forest is vast, and five colossal sigils are etched into the earth, each one holding an incredible amount of power. It’s on these sigils, North, South, East, West, and Center, that the trapped gods and shinki can be found. Those unlucky enough to be at the Center sigil are bound by hypnosis, each staring at a firefly spirit that hovers before their unblinking eyes. These victims are still and unresponsive, and the spirits will need to be destroyed to free them. The firefly spirits can be harmed by both physical and magical attack, though they likely won’t stay still to let themselves be easily extinguished.

The captives trapped on each of the other sigils are around the edges of the clearing, entangled in vines, brambles or whatever other limbs the trees could provide to bind them to this place. Some may also be under the effects of the hypnotic fireflies if they’ve been particularly troublesome, while others who have fought less might have only those bindings needed to prevent them fleeing. Regardless of how tightly they're restrained, all of the kidnapped gods and shinki on all of the sigils look drained, the severity depending on how long they’ve been there. Some are merely tired-looking, whereas others are barely clinging to consciousness. Whether their power is being used to feed the spell or being stored for something else to come, one thing is clear – those trapped need to be freed before anything more can be done.

Sigils

Those sigils beneath each group of trapped gods and shinki are powerful constructs, brimming with energy and meticulously maintained by the cultists up to now. It’s the same power as what blankets the entire forest, but it's focused on each of those five points. They must be the source of the spell that's caused all of this.

If the spell is to be broken, the sigils need to be broken as well, but it’s going to take more than just scuffing out the etched lines to break the magic. Attacking with shinki in their vessel forms or using blessed water to wash away the magic will be most effective, but for those who didn't bring blessed water or don't have the energy left to transform, there's one other option. The clearing is lit by traditional paper lanterns hanging from the trees all around, and any object set aflame with these lanterns can be used to burn the spell out of the ground bit by bit.

The trees and any remaining soulless shinki are still furiously opposing the rescue efforts, the surviving cultists are continuing to work on maintaining the spell, and it will take time to fully destroy the sigils. However, as the sigils deteriorate, the effects of the spell will begin to fade, and characters will find it easier to access their supernatural powers to speed the process along. Gods' and shinki's powers (that is to say, the special power they gained as a god or shinki, rather than canon powers) will be as effective as a shinki or blessed water against the sigils.

But be careful. As each sigil breaks, some of the magic escapes, but some is captured by the remaining sigils. For the spell to fully disappear, all five must be destroyed – and quickly, because there’s only a matter of time before this power becomes unstable.

Comments

WEST SIGIL

[godsoffortune]

On this sigil, the following characters are held captive:

Chise Hatori
Mirei Minami
Saber (Mordred)
Raichi Todoroki
Cho Hakkai

Please reply here for rescue threads involving these characters, as well as to attack this sigil.

[disciprined]

[Mirei is no trouble at all.

[You cannot think your way out of a mass of vines and brambles that hold your limbs quite fast. Nor can you cite a forest for breach of school rules, and you certainly can't impress it with your Idol Rank (which, in Mirei's case, is still something of a work in progress). Nothing in her life has prepared her for anything close to the situation she has found herself in: she is trapped far from home in the heart of a forest, and more exhausted than she can remember feeling before. Struggling got her nowhere but more tightly entangled, and fighting is so far out of the question it isn't even worth factoring into her calculations.

[So no, she is no trouble. She's too inexperienced, too tired, and - she has to admit it - absolutely and entirely too afraid. Say she escaped, somehow: what then? Far better to save her energy, but that has been sapped all the same.

[Mirei has no idea how long she's been trapped here. Too long, that's all she knows: long enough that night has passed, then day, then night again; to have realized she is trapped beneath familiar stars. Long enough to have run through all her options a thousand times and come up with no plan at all, long enough to wonder if she'll ever be anywhere else again, long enough to have run out of anger ten times over and learn that crying helps absolutely nothing, and is made a million times worse by not being able to wipe her eyes. She's slipping, once again, into what feels like sleep when - with her surroundings now familiar to the point of utter tedium - something changes. Footsteps. The voices of strangers. All right, Minami-kun, calculate this.

[There is one thing that Mirei can do, and can absolutely do even from here: project her voice.

[She takes a breath. She composes herself.]

PRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~!!

[And then she's run out of breath, and she slumps, unreasonably exhausted - but comforted, just a little: feeling a little more like herself.

[Whatever helps.]

[priforprince]

AT LEAST GIVE THAT A REST IN A CRISIS!!!

[ Behold, Mirei. Your desperate pri for help has yielded a noble knight, here to rescue the captive damsel. Witness the squire that serves her every whim: an adorable little girl. Behold her advent atop her mighty steed: a drone that's sputtering and looks about ready to blow up beneath her.

...Or, well. Mostly atop her mighty steed. Such was the force of that "pri" that it'd knocked Hibiki backwards clear off the thing and she's having to hold on with her arms while trying to keep her legs from getting caught in the rotors. Give her a moment and she'll be on board again.

But first, more yelling. She has a headache, she's been sweating all afternoon, and she keeps falling victim to humorous vine-related pratfalls. She has Had It with today. ] Is such ugly, ignominious capture suited for a would-be Divine Idol?!

[nopixiedust]

HIBIKI, NOW IS NOT THE TIME!

[She swears to some other god.]

[Without her wire able to reliably stick onto something, the trees as troublesome as they've been, Wendy can't move as fast as she'd like. But that doesn't mean she won't propel herself forward, leaving Hibiki to her 'mighty steed'. No one here looks good, but Wendy recognize Mirei over most other people. She has to see just how bad the girl is.]

Mirei, can you hear us?

[disciprined]

[She's halfway gone again by the time the voices seem to have any relevance to her.

[Of all the things to wear a girl out. Screaming shouldn't be difficult. Babies manage it, from the moment they're born - and here's Mirei, her eyelids heavy, slumping in the vines and briars that have snared her limbs. Certainly someone seems to be having absolutely no trouble in screaming at her. Slowly, effortfully, Mirei drags her eyes open again and finds herself staring straight at someone else's fantasy - though the fantasy probably wouldn't have involved the drone, or the bit where Mister Handsome Puniverse Prince of the Year was clinging to it like a cat scrabbling up a fence and shouting about idol ranks.

[So much for knights and white horses. It's so ridiculous she starts to laugh, shoulders shaking almost silently as her eyes fall closed again. This script needs an editor but bad.

[And it's not enough to make her focus, to cut through the exhaustion that fogs her thoughts, leaves her head almost too heavy to be worth the holding up. What does it is her name. Her name, and the realization that this might actually be personal after all. All right. Concentrate, pri. Let's try the eyes-open thing again, and give it 110% this time--]

Wendy?

[She knows that face.

[She didn't dream up Shikyoin's.]

Shikyoin-san... pri?

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai is barely visible under the foliage. Some of that is because he's dressed in his favorite forest green shirt, made even more effective camouflage now that it's torn and stained with dirt, mold and blood. More of it is because he's swathed in an excessive number of vines and roots, with his arms held out away from his body, his feet just a little off the ground, and a pinpoint of fiery light hanging in front of his gaze.

His attention is locked on the firefly, and despite the marks suggesting he's already tried to fight his way out, he doesn't seem to be fighting now. In fact, he's looking just a little pale.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Frankly, it doesn't matter if Hakkai blends into the foliage.]

[Ken bursts past the trees into the clearing first, nose leading the way, and Chikusa is right after him. Nanako is with them, at first, but she's already elsewhere, with other people. Chikusa lets her go. A distant part of his brain rationalizes that she's with people she knows, people they know, so it should be fine.]

[But, honestly, most of his brain is focused on Ken's back, and following him to where they need to go.]

Here, right?

[There's a strain of urgency to his voice, pressing past his usual cool and dull demeanor, and, belatedly, Chikusa realizes the rest of the scene. On a subconscious level, he knows he'd pressed one hand into his pocket for his yoyo, that he'd been automatically figuring out threat levels, but it only hits just now the entire scope of everything. His pragmatic side takes control for a second, free hand scrambling to pull out the same camera that he'd used to record Add's dumb bullshit.]

[This will be important for later. At least they have a whole clearing to traverse, considering they somehow showed upon the east side while Hakkai is on the west. And so long as Ken circumvents the circle, with neither of them knowing what it will do, they'll have an even longer run to wherever Hakkai is.]

[erogappa]

[ Just when he's become convinced that the forest is about to dump him out in Goku's front yard again, he pushes through a patch of underbrush and comes face to face... with people. Captive people. People all tied up with vines and and branches. People who look half dead. ]

What...?

[ He's moving forward without realizing it, the heavy wooden stick that he'd taken off Banri held out at the ready like a spear. That's Goten. This is the kidnapped gods! His grip on the spear tightens, his pace more sure as he heads toward the nearly group of captives. That's Goten, he...

A flash of movement catches his eye. His gut registers Ken and Chikusa before his brain does, and for a moment he can't breathe. ]

Oh shit.

[ Ken and Chikusa are really moving. Gojyo's gaze darts between them, and the group of people it looks like they're heading towards. He can't make out any of their faces, but he doesn't need to, does he? Ken's nose is good. That's got to be Hakkai.

He's probably too far away to beat Chikusa and Ken to that far group of people, but it won't be for lack of trying. ]

[battered]

[Anyone can attest to the fact that Raichi, on a normal basis, is the sort of person overflowing with energy. If something is to physically stop him against his will, then it needs to go toe-to-toe with his own ability to keep going.

Really, he didn't stand a lot of a chance against a supernatural forest, being a fairly mundane kid compared to many of the other Far Shore residents. It probably says quite a lot that he's been restrained rather heavily, however, as well as scratched up from continued efforts to escape, and sedated by the efforts of one of the hypnotic fireflies on top of it all. He tried, oh my god did he try, but now held firmly in place, he just looks kind of... drained. It's a weird look for him, for sure.]

[saiyanhybrid]

Raichi!

[Gohan is quick to come to his shinki's aid. Seeing him so drained is odd, especially when he knows how active the shinki can be. This isn't right and he is definitely killing that firefly.]

[shutupnail]

What the hell has the kid gotten himself into?

[His sight was weird in this form but he could definitely see Raichi as Gohan raced towards him, and it didn't look good even from his limited perspective. His voice also sounded strange to him, like it echoed in his limited space as a vessel form. He knew that it was being projected as mindspeech this way and that made sense anyway--but he did wonder if Raichi could hear him, too. He hoped their mutual bond to their god would make it so if for no other reason than coordination would be easier if they could communicate properly.

Damn, he knew they should practice this sort of thing more often but he was one of the biggest reasons they didn't--he hated his shinki form and constantly argued against it. Maybe he would apologize to Gohan about it one day... maybe.

For now, his concentration was elsewhere.]

Hurry up and do something or I'm gonna--

[Well, not much of anything while he was trapped as a sword in Gohan's hand but he had to say something, anything, or else his anger was going to consume him. This was frustrating and Piccolo wasn't certain at the moment which was angering him more: the fact that he was allowing himself to be used in vessel form and he couldn't react proactively, or the fact that people were in danger and he wanted to do more to help.]

[roundtablerebel]

[ Captured by trees... Could there be anything more humiliating? If there is Mordred can't think of it right now, on account of being hypnotized.

Naturally, she'd struggled against her leafy captors, using her exceptional strength to snap vines and tear some of the smaller trees from the ground. Once her limbs had been restrained Mordred even resorted to biting at the branches, which accounts for the bruises covering her cheeks. But despite her frenzied efforts to break free, she'd been overwhelmed and eventually completely pacified by the pair of fireflies hovering in front of her.

With nearly her entire body being covered in various thorny brambles, branches, and vines she looks more tree than human at the moment. Her face, still mostly visible beneath the leaves, is frozen in a perpetual scowl. As defiant as she's been, the days of having her energy drained have taken their toll, evidenced by her pallid complexion and the dark rings beneath her vacant eyes. ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

This does not suit your image.

[A shuriken flicks through the air, splattering one firefly -- the other, barely missed, takes off for whatever hills it came from before Edge can fire another one into it. That done, he hurries over, drawing a blade to start chopping at the vines and branches.]

[This legitimately freaks him out on a deeper level than he would have expected, seeing someone who was all unyielding energy and fire looking so drained and lifeless. But not one to be too open and upfront about such a feeling, Edge hides that behind questionable humor.]

[roundtablerebel]

[ With the fireflies dispatched Mordred's senses slowly start to return. Her hearing is muffled but of course, the first thing she would hear after all this time is a bad joke. ]

Shut up... Kanade...

[ No wait, that isn't right. It was a male voice.

Once a sufficient number of the heavier vines are cut the weight of Mordred's armor does the rest. She falls from her prison just as her sight begins to come back. Instinctively she swipes at the blurry figure in front of her, believing Edge is another would-be attacker. ]

I'll rip your head off, you—!

[ She can't finish the sentence, seemingly winded from speaking so quickly. Why the hell does she feel so... tired? ]

[yoshinocherry]

[Getting into the depths of the forest where the Far Shore residents are held captive was no simple feat, and Yuna didn't manage to make the journey completely unscathed. Fighting against the forest itself, as well as the soulless shinki brigade who were working so hard to keep everyone out was physically exhausting enough, and that's not even taking into account the mental and magical drain occurring through the long journey.

As such, she's already feeling worn down once the search parties locate the missing gods and shinki. She's got a good handful of scratches, scrapes, bruises, the sort of small injuries that her fairies didn't need to protect her against - their help was better put elsewhere, after all. Even so, despite all the wear and tear slowly mounting on her shoulders, a small wave of relief washes over her mind once the faces of those captured come into view, the knowledge that she should soon be able to find her partner among the missing giving her a second wind, and she's soon running and checking among the clearing for Mordred.]

There-!

[And there she is.

She's in worse shape than Yuna, for certain, but there she is.

She knows she can't waste much energy right now, but self control and moderation aren't points she has a fine hold on in desperate situations. As she runs over to where Mordred's being held, she allows herself to expend some of her remaining power, channeling it to her hands in order to have her hero form take over just her arms, letting her swipe at the fireflies with an incredible burst of speed. The bugs stand very little chance against the attack, and with them out of the way, Yuna's scrambling to pry the bindings off of Mordred.]

Are you okay? Come on, let's get you out of here...!

[roundtablerebel]

[ When Yuna destroys the fireflies the light begins to return to Mordred's eyes. She blinks but her vision is blurry and her hearing muffled, she can barely make out what's being said to her let alone who's speaking. As her mind starts to catch up with the rest of her senses Mordred remembers what happened to her, how she'd been ambushed and captured.

That's why as soon as her bonds are weakened she uses what strength she can muster to tear herself free. Clarent materializes in her grip and she swings the massive sword at Yuna, mistaking her goddess for one of her captors. ]

Stay the hell away from me!

[ She stumbles forward and drops to one knee, confused by her exhaustion. What's wrong with her? She's never felt like this before. If not for her true nature as a Servant she would be unconscious from the massive energy drain she's suffered.

By now the cultists and soulless shinki pursuing Yuna have realized what's happening and rush toward the pair. Mordred stares at the blurry hooded shapes approaching, recognition cutting through the fog in her mind.

They're the ones responsible for everything that happened to her.

That realization is accompanied by a blinding hatred and an overwhelming desire to inflict pain. It's a feeling which bleeds through her link to Yuna like lava. ]

I'LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!

[ She roars and launches herself at them. Despite her weariness, she's more than a match for the humans. The ones who attempt to defend themselves fall beneath brutal swings of her sword. Others who pose no threat to her attempt to flee or plea for their lives but Mordred cuts them down mercilessly. Every so often she hurls a torrent of magical energy from her sword that obliterates anything in its path be it flesh or tree.
Mordred continues to slaughter everything in her vicinity like a wild beast when all the extra energy she's expended begins to catch up to her.

With heaving breaths she hacks away at a corpse of the last cultist she killed, mutilating his body even further. ]

Think you can do whatever you want to me!? Huh!? You can't do anything now, can you!?

[ That Yuna is watching any of this hasn't even occurred to her yet. ]

[shutupnail]

[Before the sigils were properly dealt with it was unanimously agreed that freeing everyone in the area was the best course of action. If by 'unanimously agreed' what really was meant was that everyone just started doing it without thinking. The bonds between people were just that way.

For Piccolo, his biggest concern was that of his god and how he would react to all of this. It was bad enough that they had found Raichi in this area already. Though the emotional link between them only went one way, it didn't take an unnatural ability like that to see how it affected Gohan to see his friends and fellows caught up like this. Gohan was clearly the type to care too much, unlike Piccolo.

So for the green shinki the idea was to minimize that hurt to his god. Whether he fully comprehended why or not, determination was never hard for Piccolo to come across. He darted around, helping free the other shinki and gods captured by the trees, mostly by lending his enhanced strength to tear apart the limbs and vines trapping the many. He paused briefly in front of this one though. He couldn't recall her name or if she'd even given it to him but he remembered their meeting and conversation. A silly one, in retrospect, though he had been irritated at the time. Not an unusual thing, that.

Forgetting that the fireflies were more harmful than they looked, Piccolo reached out with one hand and swatted them away. Their touch burned his skin and he winced slightly. It was a minor wound but the annoyance of the insult to his pride burned more heavily than the insects defensive mechanism. He squished them angrily in his palm when he finally caught them, leaving small burn marks in their wake that he ignored.

He didn't notice the difference that made for the girl at first as he concentrated on ripping the vines away from her prone form. Vaguely, he wondered if he should stay closer to his god so that they could heal the wounded like this more easily with his shinki form. That stung, too, for different reasons and he tried not to think about it overly much as he worked.]

[roundtablerebel]

[ With the trance broken, Mordred blinks wearily as her senses slowly return. What's going on? Why does her whole body feel so heavy? More importantly, what's this big green blurry thing in front of her? Wait...

That's right she was under attack! She feels incredibly weak but since she's conscious Mordred decides she should be fighting. Spurred by anger and confusion she tears viciously at the remaining vines, pushing herself free of the mass of foliage. Once her legs find the ground she stumbles, her legs unsteady. She manages to push herself forward in a crude attempt to tackle her "attacker". ]

You bastard! I'll kill you!

WEST SIGIL ATTACK

[chibisu]

[Kiwami doesn't say as much as he goes to help those at the West Sigil. Instead, armed with a paper lantern, he focuses on that, calling out and not seeming to mind when he occasionally burns a part of his hand.]

Lanterns work! So does Rending! Holy water! [Straightening up, he wipes some sweat away from his forehead.] Injured, go to Ebisu-sama!

[And he goes right back to work with a single-minded determination.]

[OOC: Feel free to use this top level to thread out characters going after the center sigil! If you want to interact with Ebisu's NPC, just let me know in the subject or option line.]

Attacking the West Sigil with Rend

[shutupnail]

[Once Raichi and the other captured individuals were all rescued from this area it was only inevitable that the rescue mission turned into a counter attack. It was obvious that the sigils were causing the whole mess and they needed to be taken out. As the nearest one to their current whereabouts it was natural that Gohan and Piccolo take out their frustrations on it first.

Or, rather, it was Piccolo that felt his frustration and anger fueling his shinki abilities. He could feel the magic in the air dampen them, weaken his attempts at accessing the (relatively) new magic granted to him as a shinki, but his anger and frustration at the whole situation seemed to counter that somewhat, giving him the strength and determination to spear through anyway.

Despite the lack of practice in vessel form, the god and shinki pairing managed to at least heal Raichi a little earlier and that made Piccolo feel marginally better about this whole ordeal. With Gohan's encouraging nature, Piccolo felt maybe he could do some damage to this sigil as well before the night was over. Piccolo knew just enough about his shinki form to be aware that his form as a sword was rather much a joke--the ability he possessed was healing rather than damaging. But Gohan assured him that they could Rend just as any other god-shinki pairing if they simply put enough will and energy into it. With that promise in mind, Piccolo mentally made ready to attack with all he had when Gohan wielded him down upon the sigil.

The first attack was, perhaps somewhat to Piccolo's surprise and relief, a success as visible sparks of energy slashed across the sigil as the Rend ability struck out. It may have not been a very strong Rend compared to others and it certainly wasn't enough to take out the sigil on its own but it was a good start to their attack on it. Invigorated, Piccolo encouraged his god to strike again with him as his weapon.]

enter: a team player

[priforprince]

Is that all you can muster?

[ Hibiki swoops over atop a silver drone, which appears to be sputtering and sparking. She is choosing to ignore both of these facts, focused instead on the damage caused to the sigil. In each of her hands, she holds what looks like an antiquated blunderbuss pistol. ]

This task requires genius. Yield to me.

rolls into here

[saiyanhybrid]

[While Piccolo's powers in his vessel form may have to due more with healing than anything offensive, it doesn't deter Gohan at all. All things considered, Piccolo is still a weapon in this form and he knows that the Namekian can get frustrated easily if something doesn't work out.

Fortunately, it does.

Gohan blinks in surprise at the newcomer.]

It'd be quicker if we just worked together to get rid of this.

[frailrobin]

[ Chise had been drawn in without any trouble right in the beginning of all these disappearances, not even thinking to fight. However it took seeing the red hair peeking out from vines to even realize that she was there.

She was not a problem, but had certainly attracted a few fireflies and more vines than necessary around her, feeding off of the fact that she was constantly producing magical energy and drawing more towards her. She was the miracle-gro of magic, and it showed with the way the vines layered around and almost glowed with how brimming with energy they were. Time was nothing when you were completely entranced by the fireflies, and she was honestly being kept in amazing condition for being constantly drained from the very beginning of this, as if there were still plenty of energy to be spared.

There are about four layers of vines, twined around in more of a cradling manner instead of constraining or strangling to hold the new shinki in place. ]

[hellishrabbit]

[ From what Kamui hd gathered, the plants and bugs were bad, but nothing in this picture seemed to match that description. Still, leaving the kid there didn’t seem like a good idea, so after swatting the fireflies down with a swing of his umbrella, Kamui begins ripping off the vines as if they were made of paper. Without having to rely on his shinki abilities, Kamui was one of the less drained people in the forest. Guess these mysterious abilities came in handy. ]

Time to wake up, princess.

[rockthemonkey]

[While Kamui is focused on freeing the princess, a staff starts smacking the fireflies out of the air and out of Chise's view. The first is taken out by a shockingly quick attack, which sends the others into a frantic swarm as they move to dodge any following strikes.]

Hey, you heard him, wake up! [Goku's here! He'd been running to help Hakkai, but Hakkai apparently has plenty of help. Goku can't pass by a damsel in distress just like that.] It's time to go, okay?