Board 8 > Labyrinth of Ishiene, Topic 3 [CYOA/Forum Game] [ITD8]

(+) Yeah! (+)

so far all of the choices are unanimous, but there are few votals. that's why I figured I'd bring it up. you guys have a few days to change it. discussion or even just additional people voting could swing things to a different outcome.
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Sorry I have been really behind.

Can you amass the choices?
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I'll post a tally in a few hours I guess. doing other stuff right now, though.
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Alura's Prayer...
Hepertine
Deep God II
Red Death I
Quiet One III (LOCKED IN)

Reggie and Jack...
Follow Kennedy's Orders III
Use Jack's Power To Assist Rutherford
Use Jack's Power To Assist Vanguard

J Bot Is...
Smart but Weak
Strong but Slow
A Natural Entertainer III


Although I really didn't consider this until I started tallying, since it felt like it was already locked in, but yeah it seems like if Jack is going to assist Rutherford we're going to need to know about it BEFORE the next chapter is posted. Unless I change the chapter order. In that case, however, we need a verdict on J-Bot.

So yeah. I dunno. I'll give you guys some time to think about it and if it seems like you want to switch either of the remaining choices around we'll go from there.
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in the meantime



Jack and Bartlesby
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11,C.

That was a cool concept for the Drake, didn't expect it to vomit its own blood
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Well, blood magic is an established part of this world, so it's not that surprising. It is cool though
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Use Jack's Power To Assist Vanguard
J Bot Is Strong but Slow
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Use Jack's Power To Assist Vanguard
Strong but Slow
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Use Jack's Power To Assist Vanguard
Clever
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Well that tied up pretty quick!
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12. Quiet Admission

Alura Badaura stood up in her saddle.
Her feet, firmly pushing against the stirrups, seemed to angle outward awkwardly.
But her legs remained straight and she held herself upright.
"That is your Prince!" she announced. "Now go with him!"

Y's horse, beneath him, seemed unsteady and uncertain.
Well that certainly wasn't his Prince.
It was the Prince of Arland, sure.
The people here were mostly Arlanders.
Maybe she was talking to them.
Although it seemed strange that they'd need to be urged on like this.
Shouldn't a Prince be someone who inspires others to follow him naturally?

The Prince, however, seemed to be riding down the hillside on his own.
He was singing to himself as he went and seemed almost completely flippant.
Did he truly not understand the urgency of the situation they were in?
Y thought for a few moments.
He looked at Alura Badaura some more.
Were they hiding some kind of secret strategy?
Something that could wipe out an entire army...?

Y shook his head.
No.
That wasn't possible.
Back at Kenessis they had stood down because they didn't have the strength to interfere.
The forces at Kenessis hadn't even been half of what was mustered here, though.
It seemed more like they knew this was the end of their journey.
Were they really so obsessed with making a dramatic last stand?

To his surprise, however, the men here acted differently from how Y would expect.
They were bound by loyalty, lealty, and service to their King after all.
This was not a concept Y was very familiar with.
Though he had seen the love people had for Queen Lana.
It almost seemed more like they followed her because they believed in her.
This guy... Y wasn't sure what his deal was.
People were following his orders just because it was what they were supposed to do.
That sort of tautology, however, was going to lead them to their doom.
Still, despite that, they marched forward.
One by one. And once the tide started, the others beckoned forth as well.

"Hie!" The Commander cried. "Only the road forward exists now!"
What the hell was he talking about?
The woods behind them, the port to the south, it all still existed.
All they had to do was turn around.
All they had to do was make the sensible choice!
"There is no more going home!" He thundered forth on his charger.

Y watched in shocked silence.
Before long that rider overtook the Prince and went across the field on his own.
Not to be outdone, Winchester leaned forward and sped up his own charge as well.
And then the stragglers began to come down the hill after them and move across the field.

Rutherford's horse took a step forward.
It didn't make a sound, but it almost sounded like a firebomb crashing into the ground.
Y felt his own head slowly turning that way until he was looking at the Knight.
Hayes face was white as a ghost. His eyes were looking off into the distance.
Somehow he looked completely mentally defeated and broken.
But his horse... was walking forward.
Was it doing that on its own...? Or...?

"Rutherford," Y inquired. "What are you doing?"
His voice was more urgent than he intended.
But he did not want his friend to ride down there and die with the others.
He found his own horse race forward to catch up with his friend.
They were both standing at the crest of the hill now, looking down at the field below.

The forces which were laying siege to the western side of the keep noticed the approaching horses.
They adjusted their priorities and began to form a line to meet the incoming chargers.
They outnumbered the horses at least three to one.
And this was only a fraction of the forces assaulting Redgard.
---

To think they could make any difference was folly. Pure folly.

"He's right," Rutherford muttered. "I'm not going to make it home."

"We can still turn back," Y urged him.

Rutherford shook his head. "I'm a Knight. I want to die as a Knight."

"You are being illogical," Y insisted.
"There is nothing Knightly about riding into an unwinnable battle."

"No." Rutherford shook his head.
"There's nothing Knightly about fleeing from a battle just because it seems unwinnable."
That kind of logic, impersonating wisdom, was actually just nonsense.
Whatever the hell was wrong with Winchester, and Alura, and all of these Arlanders.
They had infected his friend as well. Hayes was not thinking clearly.
Or was this just... something about their culture...
These humans... it was something Y didn't understand at all.
Could he ever understand it, though?
There seemed to be no point to riding down there.
He would certainly die.
Why do something that he knew would lead to his own death?

Rutherford Hayes slowly drew his sword.
It made a sound that Y couldn't shake from his mind.
The sword simply created the intonation of its duty.
Being removed from the scabbard.
There was nothing left to do except what it had been made for.
Was Hayes the same? Did he have no other options here?

"Dalamar...?" Y looked over his shoulder, back at the Goblin.

"Riding into battles has never been my strong suit,"
Dalamar said. "I'll be left behind to clean up the mess after it's all over."
He looked quite sad. "Finding dead Knights on the battlefield..."
It was likely he had experience with this kind of thing before.

While he was still turned the other way, Y missed the movements of Hayes.
That man didn't even wait to say goodbye.
He urged his horse ahead and it began to trot down the hill after the others.

Y, frustrated, turned his mount toward Alura.
He rode it over to where she was, so aggressively that the two horses almost collided.
"Just what is happening here?" he asked.
His voice sounded more angry than he intended.
She was a Princess or something like that, wasn't she?
If she had married the Prince. That was his understanding.

"We're going to recapture Redgard," Alura said.
Although she spoke with confident, although her voice hadn't changed, her voice had.
She had the same expression as Rutherford just moments ago.
Her face had gone pale and her eyes were distant.
She was refusing... no... unable... to see what was going on around her right now.

"You can put a stop to this, can't you?" Y said.
"You have to stop them. Call them back. We can retreat, we-"
"We.... We can still save some lives, can't we?!"

"Yes, Y," Alura told him gently. "There are still lives I can save."

She left the crest of the hill, left him behind, and charged after the others.

Y let out a shout of frustration, releasing his anger onto the air around him.
Then, calming himself down, he surveyed the hill again.
It was only him and Dalamar now.
The Goblin moved to the edge of the ridge and looked on at what was going on below.

"I know it'll be hard to watch," Dalamar said.
"But I don't think it's in our benefit to look away either."
---

Y's mount was uneasy again. It seemed like it was caught up in the flow.
It wanted to ride after the others. Or maybe he was projecting his own feelings onto it.
He went to Dalamar's side and halted there. Briefly.
"Is this what it is? The feeling I cannot understand? What is this?"
Y mused out loud, trying to process his own thoughts.
"What a strange place I've found myself in."
He looked down at the ground and mumbled it to himself.
"Not wanting to be left behind, here on the hill, while everyone else has gone ahead."

He could fight too.
He was not Dalamar.
He kicked his horse and raced along after his companions.

Squinting his eyes, he surveyed the field below.
By the time he reached the bottom of the hill the forces had already reached each other.
The Captain brought down an enemy with his lance but was quickly snatched off of his horse and battered.
Winchester, meanwhile, was still in the saddle.
His horse turned, kicked, and jumped around the field wildly.
Y honestly couldn't tell if it was panicking or if this was a control motion.
But the Prince had one hand on the reigns and in his others was a sword.
He slashed outward, creating wide ribbons of steel.
With each step, another swath, the blade cut outward and pressured the foes from surrounding him.
The forces at his back locked against the enemy and began to push at them and spread out.
At this point, however, they'd simply be testing their own defensive strength.
It wasn't enough to hold against these kinds of numbers.
They had charged and somewhat the element of surprise.
But that wouldn't last long.
Y crossed half of the field and at this time the enemy was already starting to form up and push back.
He rode past Alura Baduara, leaving her behind.
His hand went to his belt and he drew his gold plated knife.
It was the only weapon he had. The only one he'd need, here.

The foes formed an angled wall and pushed outward with this shape.
Because Winchester had less men at his disposal he couldn't spread out and meet the curtain head on.
Instead, his men bunched up and tried to hold their position.
However, the edges of the wall began to bend inward to surround the Prince.
At this time, then, Winchester and his soldiers were forced to slowly begin retreating.

The front end of the line became thing but the sides were reinforced.
With this, they began to attack at the flank of the Arlanders.
Cutting inward, they could eventually form a triangle and trap the Prince inside of it.
If he kept falling back it wouldn't matter. They couldn't fall back fast enough.
They were already inside of it.
If they tried to stand where they were and fight here nothing would change it.
They might take a few more with them, but it lead to the same outcome.
The horses now, they would walk backwards slowly.
They would rear up. Fear was in their eyes.
And what of the men who rode them? Was their will breaking as-

"NOT BACK!" Rutherford cried out. "FORWARD!"

His horse jumped through the air, streaming past Winchester, and he slammed into a pikeman in front of him.
The mount cried out in pain as blood gushed out of its chest and neck.
It kicked outward wildly, battering the shield of the foe and knocking him downward.
Rutherford, meanwhile, freed himself from the saddle and went forth.
His foot landed on the shield of the enemy and pushed him the rest of the way to the ground.
As he fell he used the momentum to cut into the next enemy and disarm him.
---

A husk with an axe moved to his flank, aiming to cut the Knight down,
But Winchester had moved forward to protect Rutherford.
He'd actually climbed off of his own horse voluntarily.
The Silver Prince stepped into the gap and slashed outward with his sword, taking the hand of the opponent.
And for a moment there was uncertainty.
The curtain in front of them would reform quickly.
Changing tactics on the battlefield wasn't instant, but it could be done.
In this case, however, it needed to be instant. Or else.

The Arland cavalry charged, trampling right over the position where Winchester and Hayes were fighting.
The tip of their spear formation pushed through this temporary gap in the enemy formation.
The streamed in, breaking through, and cut the line in half.
They were going forward. Toward Redgard, and the ditches that were dug outside of the castle.

The enemy unit, panicking, began to turn and buckle outward.
Capturing the enemy inside of the pyramid was no longer an option.
Instead, they chose to fan out and block all paths of retreat.
This tactic, however, left the rear exposed.
Alura and Y were able to ride in from behind and rejoin the Arland forces without any harassment.
Additionally, this formation was good and ONLY good for blocking retreat.
It did nothing about the insane Winchester whose goal was... to push forward.

He and his men washed over the enemy captain like a tidal wave and kept on toward the ditches.
He grabbed his horse and climbed back onto it, riding forth along with the others.
Hayes, not wanting to be left behind, found the horse of a man who had been killed.
Before long, Y found himself riding with the others.

The ditches had once been manned but they were now abandoned.
Winchester rode quickly to where the enemy flag was buried in the ground.
Symbolically, he ripped it out of the mud and tossed it to the ground.
One of the Knights who had joined his side stripped off his own cloak.
It was a poor imitation of a flag, but it did bear the crest of Arland on it.
And it had their naval blue colors. The men waved it wildly and passed it among themselves.
They put their back to the castle walls and moved to meet the oncoming attackers.

The few enemy stragglers who had been left in the ditches were quickly tracked down and slaughtered.
The Arlanders who were still on foot were not able to close the gap as quickly as the cavalry.
They were forced to turn and meet the enemy on the open field.
And, inevitably, they were swept over and cut down.
Now there were two hulks at the head of the enemy forces.
They still outnumbered the Arlanders two to one.
But... Y felt like... those odds were better than what they had been facing before.
He started to feel something strange inside of himself.

This was not at all like this battle was supposed to unfold.
He almost found this strange feeling like perhaps they could win.
Perhaps this was not a pointless gesture or a last stand.
---

Within moments shields were meeting shields again.
And somehow sharp and heavy steel always seemed to find its way through the gaps.
The Arlanders were pushed off of their horses and back down into the ditches.
They were fighting in the mud now and the enemy was truly at every side of them.
There were wooden planks set up to protect and provide cover.
Then, as a result, much of the fighting seemed to condense around these areas.
And at the edges of the ditches where one could stand and try to hold off a foe,
Or fall back quickly if needed.
It became a messy, bloody battle where the mud seemed to rule the field.
All Y could think about was how muddy it was here.

Men from Redgard appeared on the walls and began firing arrows down into the melee.
It was small, but it was something. They saw that someone was here fighting for them and they answered the call.
Y expected that he'd die fighting beside Hayes or maybe the Prince,
But reality was not so glorious as imagination.
Truthfully he was fighting with two old men whose names he did not know.
They had formed up at one of the planks and stood back to back to back.
The wall, then, protected their fourth flank and they fought off attackers at all sides.
This prevented them from being swarmed and overwhelmed but they were still often fighting four or five men at once.
Y lost this vantage point when an enemy Hulk slammed into the plank, breaking it.
One of his allies had already fallen from a sword to the neck,
He had actually not seen it happen and wasn't sure how long he'd been fighting on his own.
He grabbed the other man and they fall back, stumbling down into the ditch.
They managed to cut down one of their assailants as they fled together.
And before long they were joined by two other men, one a Knight, who had come from the other side.

Y threw himself to the ground as the hulk rolled down into the ditch and swung a driftwood club.
The Knight was crushed instantly, killed inside of his armor.
The other man, a bit more nimble, rolled through the attack somehow and got back to his feet.
His rapier, still out, was plunged into the enemy.
He stuck it two more times while backing away.
However, his mistake was going for that third strike.
The enemy managed to catch him in its hand and begin to crush him.
The old man jumped on the back of the enemy and began hacking at it with his sword.
The hulk turned, rolling its shoulder and threw the old man to the ground.

Y jumped to his feet, running forward.
He angled his knife backward but then spun it point forward.
All he could do was run in and slash upward at the neck of the enemy.
He wasn't quick enough to save the old man from getting stepped on,
But the rapier wielder was dropped to the ground, alive, and unbroken.

The man thanked him and together they fought their way along the length of the ditch.
An enemy with a spear nearly impaled Y but was taken down by an arrow not a moment too late.
By the time they reached the opposite end of the wide ditch an enemy Knight had moved to block their path.
The foe was wearing plate armor and held a kite shield in one hand and a broadsword in the other.
It was all Y could do to direct his aggression at the foe while protecting himself.
And, within moments, he realized he was outmatched.
The enemy pushed against him, testing his defenses, and finding them lacking.
He felt a cut open up on his arm and then his thigh.
The enemy angled his shield, pointed his sword outward, and thrust from behind it.
---

Thankfully, however, Y was not fighting alone.
His companion with the rapier harassed the enemy and eventually found a gap in his defense.
Fighting two enemies at once was hard and this alone had been enough to make the difference.
The point of the rapier slipped in through the visor and took the man out with a single shot.

Y grabbed the shield and, though his legs were heavy and tired, ran up the side of the ditch.
He managed to topple over a husk with a shield bash and hold it on the ground with his foot.
The ascent was rough but they had made it back out onto the muddy fields in between two of the ditches.

The Neonite stopped for a moment to look around him, studying his surroundings.

Straight ahead he could see Winchester fighting.
His horse was dead on the ground behind him, taken down with two spears.
The Prince was holding his side. His hand was covered in blood.
There were five men protecting him from all sides but close to a dozen enemies surrounding them.
The field to the left was bloody and filled with bodies.
There were some here still on their feet fighting.
Anyone who had gone the other way, too close to the walls, was shot down.
Then, looking behind him, Y realized just how truly hopeless this battle really was.

The enemy forces which had been blocking the front gate had redirected to this wall.
They went up against three or four hundred before and, somehow,
Perhaps it was the surprise assault or their fervor or something else,
They were somehow making it a close battle.
But now eight hundred were riding at them from around the southern wall.
And the ones in front were armed with javelins and longbows.

"Run!" Y commanded.

His companion took a javelin through the spine and fell face first to the ground.
All Y could do was charge forward into the next ditch and fall into it.
Arrows rained into the ground around him. By pure luck he was not hit.
And once he was down there he was at a bad angle to shoot at directly.

Holding the shield forward he barreled into an enemy husk from behind and smashed it aside.
"Winchester," Y called out. "We have to move! North!"

The Prince, mad with the elation of battle, was rooted in position and fighting like a berserker.
The words of the Neonite did, however, reach him. "Form up!" he instructed.
One of the men who'd been protecting him was already dead by the time Y got there.
But, together, they ran north through the mud and blood and an inch of water.
Y did not get another kill during this run but the man to his left did manage to slay an enemy soldier.
One of their own was dropped from behind by an arrow,
And a javelin flew through the air but missed the group by a wide mark.

Rutherford had somehow found a third horse in all of the chaos.
He was standing up on the grass by himself now, fencing an enemy with his sword.
He'd lost his shield somehow in the chaos.
He glanced their way and seemed to already be aware of the situation.
"Toward the walls," Rutherford quickly advised. "And keep moving North!"
He spun his mount, letting it kick the enemy beside him, and then rode on the outer edge of the ditch.

Winchester, his few soldiers, and Y cut diagonally across the field as they emerged from the second ditch.
There was another row of ditches here, closer to the wall.
They went down through it, let the arrows sail over their heads, and came back up on the other side.
Y still heard the sound of fighting raging around them but didn't stop to look.
He guessed they likely still had between thirty and fifty men on their feet.
But those were likely to be swamped within a matter of moments.
---

When they moved closer to the walls, however, the man above seemed to identify them as a friendly unit.
From that birds eye view it must have been easy since they were obviously being chased.
They dumped oil, threw burning pitch, and fired arrows into the pursuing enemy forces.
There was a young woman, Y saw, manning a small siege engine as well.
She fired crushed rocks into the enemy cavalry which killed a few men and slowed their advance.
All the while they were pushing North, toward hope and futility.
Hope because they thought perhaps there would be something here to meet them.

Futility because the only thing waiting was the remaining wing of the enemy forces.

Two hundred heavy infantry, fully armored, with shields and pikes at the ready.
Might have well been a wall of solid rock blocking their path.
Half of a thousand behind them on horses, and still the forces left over from the fighting in the ditches.

The canopy of clouds was thick overhead.
Finally they stopped running. They just stopped.
Rutherford rode to meet them.
He hadn't been shot down. Somehow.
Well, he'd been shot. There was an arrow in his back.
But he was still on his horse.

The clouds broke and a beam of light shined down from above.
The enemy stopped moving. They could have moved in and crushed these forces easily.
There was nothing left they could do to resist.
Perhaps this was known as the 'wordless surrender.'
Since there was no chance of winning this battle by prolonging it.
The enemy could either slaughter them or capture them.
It was completely at the discretion of the Fairy commander here.
Because even if Winchester didn't raise a white flag he had no say in the matter.

His hair was wet and blood was dripping from his scalp down his forehead as well.
But, ultimately, the grim looking wound at his side was of a greater concern.

Alura Badaura moved to his side. She looked up at the sun.
"I've been praying for victory," she said. There was a strange look on her face.

"I'm sure your prayers will be answered," Winchester told her.

Y shook his head. He should feel terrible right now.
He knew how this would end and he went in after them anyway.
This was the only outcome that could have possibly unfolded.
Yet, still, like a fool, he had chosen to go ahead.
And for a moment there while fighting,
He couldn't remember it well, only briefly,
But there had been a moment when he had faith that the Prince had led them toward a possible victory.
How had he done that? He made even impossible defeat seem like it wasn't hopeless.
Perhaps that was the exact quality that led men to follow him.
But Y knew he should feel terrible because of this outcome.
And yet somehow he didn't. He felt exhilarated. He was mad with the joy of battle.
It felt like nothing he had ever felt before. Even fighting in Ishiene's Labyrinth hadn't been like this.
Y was truly alive for the first time ever. Perhaps that was a good way to die.
Knowing that he had been alive.

Alura shook her head. "They won't listen. They never have."

The clouds moved again and the sun disappeared.

Her voice grew quiet then, but still loud enough for those nearby to hear.
"When I went to see Hepertine he did not answer my prayers either."
"He came to meet Setsuna, but I was ignored," Alura said.
"I was the one who put my Faith in the Gods, who gave them my love."
"And in the end I was ignored. I'm not a chosen person."
"I have no close relationship with the Gods. That's just a lie I told myself to feel better."

Alura looked up at her husband. "The truth is that I'm nobody special."
---

Winchester looked north and then south. The enemy still was not moving.
Not wanting to agitate them it seemed the Redgard forces had stopped firing into them as well.
He turned his sword over in his hand, rotating the blade.
"Then put your Faith in me," he commanded her. "Give your Love to me."
"I'm not the kind of person who would ignore that."

What the hell was he going to...?
Just now, in this moment, what could he even do?
There was still a chance to end this by being captured.
It wasn't ideal but they might survive and there would be hope for the future.
If he tried anything now then they'd all be killed.

The heavy infantry to the north began to slowly march this way.
They weren't going to sit there forever, of course. That made sense.

One of the stragglers began to crawl out of the ditch.
He was grabbed by a husk and his throat was slit.
He let out a cry of agony as his blood burst forth into the wet dirt.
No, perhaps, hoping for mercy was insane and optimistic.
Perhaps for once Winchester was actually being sane.

"We made a promise, didn't we?" Alura told him. "Of course you have that."

"Good." Winchester took her hand. Then released it.
"Then I command you to pray, and do not let doubt cloud your mind."
"For my Faith in you is an absolute truth. If you claim to have Faith in me..."
"Then you cannot doubt that my Faith in you will bear fruit as well."

What kind of circular logic was that?
Y wanted to grab the Prince and scream at him.
He heard the thundering of hooves and then suddenly realized the enemy to their rear had already mobilized.
Forget waiting for the pike wielders to come and find them.
The cavalry was already on top of them.
The man to his left side was killed instantly, being knocked across the ground.
His back split into two halves and he let out a gurgle as his blood erupted outward like a blooming flower.
The enemy circled back, forming a ring around them.
The foes here, husks and riders, began to cut at the outside edge of their already thin defensive line.
They'd last a minute at most. Maybe a bit more if they fought with courage.

Alura Badaura fell to her knees.

Y grabbed an enemy who was in the saddle and ripped him out of it as he rode past.
He took the enemy to the ground and stabbed at his back and torso frantically.
Rutherford moved to his side and protected his flank as someone else charged at his exposed side.
He heard the ringing of steel, the horrible choking sound of death, the heavy thud of limp bodies hitting the floor.

"I know you've never listened to me before."
"Or maybe you have and you chose not to do anything about it."
"Maybe it's because I've been undeserving up until now."
"But I think that I'm only a mortal."
"I won't lie and say that I've tried my best."

"I haven't."

Hayes took a blade in his forearm and fell backwards off of his horse.
His breatplate cracked and also bent inward slightly from the force of the fall.
Y took a step forward, standing over him, and raised his arms defensively.
The enemy waited for Rutherford's horse to dance out of the way.
Then he advanced and poked downward at Y with a trident.
He felt the blade bury itself in his shoulder and then rip back out.

"But I do try. Sometimes."
"And I don't want to die. I don't want my husband to die."
"I don't want my country to be destroyed by foreign invaders."
"I don't want my world to be consumed by the Darkness."
"And I think... I think whatever you are..."
"I think you are something that can do something about it."
---

A second thrust came at him from above.
Y was pushed backward. He stumbled over the Knight beneath his feet.
He ended up falling on his own back while holding onto bent metal rods.
The enemy stepped forward and pushed down hard with the pike.
Y was holding it in his hands but the middle point was touching his stomach.
If the enemy overpowered him here he would be skewered.
And the truth was that his foe, in a standing position, had far more leverage.

"Perhaps all this time we've been confusing Faith for hubris."
"It is presumptuous to assume that you'll answer my prayers."
"I already said it. It's a day for confession."
"I'm not anyone special, I know."
"But there is something even I can understand."

Y felt the point of the blade dig into him.
He whistled in pain and began to squirm as the enemy was driving the point hard.
Hayes rolled sideways and grabbed the opponent around the knee.
He tried to drag the enemy to the ground or at least pull him off of Y.
The two began to wrestle on the ground.
The trident was dropped and the enemy freed a knife from his belt.

"If you watch us suffer and you continue to do nothing,"
"Then there's no way I can consider you benevolent."
"There's no way I can consider you to be a God at all."

It was the selfish, narrow view of a mortal who thought that only her existence mattered.
And still. It wasn't absolute. But there was some truth to what she was saying.
The thing that was listening, there was only one thing listening,
And Death, who was always listening, the thing that was listening found her words to be fascinating.
It was a Quiet thing. A thing that only observed and never acted much.
It didn't often speak up or do anything to change the way of the world.

"I often saw suffering and wondered even what it was," The Quiet One said.

The sky dropped and the curtain of night rose around them.
A purple miasma swirled across the open sky, with green auroras buried within them.
It created cones of light and an irresponsible brightness that didn't mesh with the fall of night.

"For how could I be called a God? And Why?" The Quiet one asked.
"I never once asked to be called a God. Only... you people began to call me one."
"It was because you did not understand me."

Y felt his body trembling. His inner core began to shake.
The pain he had been feeling was gone but it was replaced by numbness.
It was as if his body had been replaced with cotton.
The walls that had once stood his to his side, looking down, were low beneath him.
He heard the sound of fighting in the dirt,
But truthfully Hayes and that husk were fighting no more.
They were both relaxed and floating through a stream of honey.

"Should something we do not understand be idolized?"
The Quiet One mused. "In that sense, I, who do not understand misfortune,"
"I, who do not understand suffering, should my idol be grief itself?"

Y squinted in pain as his body became warm and then hot.
For some reason it felt like he wasn't just trembling now,
But more like every molecule in his body was trembling.

"Undeserving? Presumptuous? These words assign value to something without value."
"No more could pollen decide its fate than you decide your own," The Quiet One tells her.
"Whether it lands and blossoms into a flower or is carried into the river and dies."
"The wind is the master of its fate. And neither is the blooming nor the death the good or the bad."
---

"Do not deny my agency!" Alura Badaura screamed.
She pushed herself to her feet. And her words echoed outward.
The haze which surrounded them was pushed back, bubbling outward.
The stars began to bounce through the sky around her.
"I chose to pray. I chose to ride down that hill. I made these decisions."
"The wind may try to carry me but I will always direct my sails."
"Upriver or downriver. And maybe sometimes sailing against the current is impossible."
"But even then I'll turn my rudder east or west as I see fit."

"You are very stupid," The Quiet One concluded. "But you amuse me."
"Know that time will always converge on a single point. The dot known as End."

The wind picked up and hot air began to swirl all around them.

"Whether you experience misery or joy on that line is irrelevant."
"You will either blossom or you will die. This End is inevitable."
"It is not me who denies your agency," The Quiet One responded. "That is merely reality itself."

Alura shook her head. "Let me look upon you, then."
"I want to see the face of an incomprehensible creature that is so stupid it cannot process a simple truth."

Y began to float upside down.
Then all at once water began to form around them.
Only he could breath in it just as naturally as air.
And the space around him grew murky with salt and brine.
Creatures of the deep, whales and squids and fish and molluscs,
All began to float through the water around them.
All, gradually, were descending downward toward the bottom of it.

"Tell me," The Quiet one said. His form seemed like, maybe, it had materialized.
Y couldn't see or process anything but he felt like there was something there.
In the space between, the countless space, between himself and Alura.

"Tell me what you think a mortal can see that I cannot."

Alura smiled.

"I see the joy or misery in every waking moment."
"Because each one of them brings me closer to the End."
"This is a truth that you can never know."

"Truthfully..." Alura Badaura laughed in the face of a God. "I pity you."

Y opened his mouth but water filled it and only bubbles came out.
How was she still able to speak like this.
He wanted to cut into this conversation.
He needed to tell her to stop.
Why was she doing this? It was clear she was going to anger this thing.
Y didn't know anything about Gods or anything like that.
But it seemed as if they were dealing with an incredibly powerful being.
It could end them all on a whim.

The water grew hot and expanded.
The Quiet One it seemed to be smiling at her.
Probably.
"I will kill everything here," The Quiet One said. "Including you."

"I have Faith that you will not," Alura responded.

"It means little to me," The Quiet One said. "Whether you live or die."

"You know that I am right." Alura's eyes narrowed. She looked very shrewd.
"Is this how you lose an argument? Without any grace?"
"You'd rather wipe out an entire species than admit you were wrong?"

The water began to swirl around them.

Alura closed her eyes.
"I am very stupid," Alura admitted. "You were right."
"A smart person would have never accepted such Gods."

Y let out a howl of pain as he was smashed into the ground with concussive force.
The water around them seemed to break all at once.
The darkness above them broke.
The clouds were dashed and the sun flooded the plains.
---

He found himself blinking back against the light that hadn't been there moments ago.
But his body was burning with heat already.
And so, for that reason, even with the sun beating down on him it felt as if he were cooling.

The man beside him, however, was not so lucky.
His knife fell out of his hand even as he held it to Hayes throat.
And his body grew hot. From the inside out it grew hot.
Until all at once he could no longer contain it and he EXPLODED.

There were blood ticks, swollen creatures, all around them.
Their bodies were bright orange or glowing red moments before they burst into a thousand pieces.
Blood and bone and chunks of flesh were raining all down around Y.
He couldn't even stop to take stock of the situation.
All he saw was fields of death around him.
The men who'd moved to surround them were literally being smited by an all-powerful... thing.
A God, perhaps? No, they only called it that because they didn't understand it.

Then he saw the heavy infantry begin to collapse into itself as the men there exploded.
One by one, row by row, from the front to the back of the column.
And the cavalry which had chased them here.
Those men grew sick and fell from their horse even as death took them.
And the courageous foes who had fought in the ditches as well began to erupt.
It was sickening to be honest.
They were his enemies and it still made him sick to see it.
They were being killed in a way that was terrible and horrifying and beyond comprehension.

And Y began to wonder when he'd be stricken down.
Clearly this Quiet One was not a thing with mercy.
It was not a thing with understanding.
It might arbitrarily chose to kill them all at any given moment.

Also, it was not a thing that he could ever understand, either.

That's why he didn't understand why but... in the end... he was still standing.

---

"You're not going to die."
Majore stood there, rooted in place.
Men and husks and hulks and gray wizards alike.
All were exploding around him. At all sides.
At all flanks. His forces were being killed at once.
Instantly, rapidly, and with a power beyond comprehension.
He stood there looking into the mirror.
He deeply gazed into his own eyes.
The arbiter of truth was in his hand.
It was rewriting his reality.
"You're not going to die."
His body was growing warm.
No, hot.
He felt the inside of his chest cavity expanding.
His bones felt like they were warped and bending.
The pressure was unbelievable.
His head was shaking.
He gritted his teeth.
All that existed now was his own eyes.
They were the rule of law.
They were reality.

"YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DIE."

This is what he told himself.
And it was true. He knew it was true.
That's because he made it true.

Redgard was lost. But he could not die here.
Leave dying to the powerless.
Majore still had a world to shape to his unflinching will.

The instrument of truth hung limp at his side.
His arm hurt. His mind hurt. He had put a strain on himself here.
But his eyes were steady. He saw them swirling as they looked back at him.
He turned and walked away from the mirror.

"Enough with the reflections," he said to himself. "I want the real thing."

[Chapter End]

Deus Ex Machina, apparently.

12. Was Alura worth saving?
A. She was undeserving.
B. She was no one special.
C. She was too presumptuous.
D. Yeah, I guess so.

BONUS. Liona cannot save the Queen. What should she do instead?
A. Go to help out the Vanguard.
B. Go to help capture Glemoor.
---

Uhhhh huh so I take it that was the worst?

that or the "NUKE EVERYTHING / Summer Rain / shower" esque option?

also is prince dead?
---

MariaTaylor posted...

"I will kill everything here," The Quiet One said. "Including you."

"I have Faith that you will not," Alura responded.

---

D. Meh

Bonus

A
---

that literally worked
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For some reason I thought it was only a fraction of the enemy leader's forces that got blown up rather than all of em. Whoops

Anyway for now

12. C: She was too presumptuous

BONUS: B: Go to help capture Glemoor

Kinda neutral to whatever unless there is a good argument. I am just thinkin how vanguard already has a strategist directing things (but yeah she could probably also do some stuff / redirect things going to Vanguard too)
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D. Yeah, I guess so. Incompetent as she was, she ended up saving the team.

Indifferent to the bonus.

Maybe Liona can't save the Queen because Sunday already did it??
---

Nah, I think Liona can't hope to get to wherever they are keeping her
---

we'll find out soon

J-Bot Stats

Smart: +1
Strength: +1
Speed: -2

Charisma: +4

Other vote seems split but I can reconcile with that. Reggie can follow Kennedy's orders while still using Jack's powers to help assist the Vanguard in some ways.
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12 D
Bonus A
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I think I might have been a bit ambitious with this last chapter, but that won't prevent me from doing some post-chapter analysis/discussion as I've done with others in the past.

- so I think everyone simply dying in a hopeless situation is very, very predictable at this point. this is EXACTLY what you guys would expect me to normally do and I'm always trying to surprise people. surprising people means stuff like major characters being able to die and not always having plot armor. but it also means that if there's a trend of characters ALWAYS dying then you have to acknowledge that sometimes people get into hopeless situation and they somehow get out of it by some miracle or other. I feel like 10 games into the series this is going to happen from time to time. that being said I do feel like the end result was a little bit unsatisfying but maybe that's only my own personal sensibilities. obviously I can't speak for anyone but myself but I'm almost wishing now I had just had the characters killed off there since it would've been more realistic and more realistic stuff always appeals to me more.

- the fighting in the trenches was still awesome either way. I got a lot of enjoyment out of writing that scene and reading it over a second time (for proofreading) and a third (generally just because I do this) was really satisfying. I wanted this situation to feel chaotic and hopeless but with Y only focused on any given moment in time without too much worry about what would happen next. so when big changes occur it's always a bit of a shock and he has no choice but to adapt in the moment. I guess I've never been in a warzone myself so I can't say for certain but my intention was for this scene to really match the frantic feeling and adrenaline driven actions of Y as believably as possible.

- I did enjoy the confrontation between The Quiet One and Alura. what I think might be an issue is that there's a point I left pretty implicit and maybe I should have made it explicit. But I wasn't sure how to do that from Y's point of view. I guess me saying it now might help a little but I do think the chapter did suffer from being resolved by a deus ex machina. so Alura seems initially very broken up at the idea of the Quiet One denying her agency. he threatens her with death but she laughs it off and clearly does not seem to fear the idea of being killed. in fact, we see in previous chapters that she was perfectly fine with the concept of death. okay, so, what exactly is going on here and how/why did it get resolved the way it did? Alura says that she would never have accepted such Gods. in essence, she's saying that she does not fear death and that she denies the Quiet One and does not accept him. the Quiet One, seeing that she does not fear death, chooses a different form of punishment. HE DENIES HER AGENCY by saving her despite the fact that she refused to accept him as a God. it's basically a giant psychological fuck over that is meant to make her feel terrible in the end. rather than feeling like she was saved, Alura feels powerless here. all the more because of how powerful the Quiet One clearly is. he could have done anything and he chooses to do the one thing that Alura did not want. she originally wanted help from the Gods, but then she decides that she does not want to accept his help. she wants to maintain her own agency but she is not given a choice. he solves the problem anyway. this wasn't an act of saving Alura or the others, it was a petty and vindictive action in order to make her feel terrible because it was clear he couldn't make her suffer by killing her.

- another major element of this chapter was that I needed to continue to build up the idea of Majore as a threat. with him resisting an instant death ability from a God-like being hopefully I've established him as something serious and worth fearing.
---

To me Alura came off as an entitled brat during that whole bit (then again the whole situation in itself was based on supreme idiocy on the prince's part as well as hers)

She is preaching on about her agency and stuff and basically going "HEY GODS I AM THE MIRACLE WORKER HERE YOU WILL SAVE US RIGHT NOW! YOU WILL OBEY ME"

Then when a cranky Cthulu esque one happens to answer her and tell her to fuck off she just goes "NO SHUT UP IF YOU WONT OBEY ME THEN I DENY YOU FUCK YOU"

Like who the fuck are you? For one it is because of your stupid fiance that you refused to talk to that got you all here when you could have easily just did a 180 and leave. Don't go bitching at the gods when things go wrong when the whole situation was fucking moronic in the first place

I mean I could see another type of character act similar to that from another background for different reasons, but she is supposed to be the "priest" of the group who was all about that stuff so her acting like a bitch was like...yeah fuck you.
---

oh yeah I mean that's just my typical style of characters not living up to their reputations. this was even covered in Hayes POV chapter where he thinks about it; only Alura herself could have started the rumor that she was a special priestess and chosen by the gods.
---

I was also trying to tie this all together loosely with the theme that Faith = Insanity

not sure how well that worked. or even, in retrospect, how much I like that theme, but eh. exploring new things is always fun for me even if the end result isn't perfect. I think the other storylines still have a lot of potential.
---

I think it depends on how you portray that individual's "Faith" to see what it truly is

The Prince's "Faith" wasn't what I considered true faith. That was as you put "Insanity". Merely a man who thought he could do whatever he pleased because his girlfriend said she was tight with the Gods and because he was all romantic about the whole ordeal rather than taking it seriously (may be contradicting other cases but yeah)

There are obviously hopeless looking situations and "having faith in yourself" etc which I understand, but this wasn't really one of those "do or die" moments nor beyond his control. He just chose to do an incredibly stupid thing with zero thought and essentially sent his people to die for no reason

Then you have Alura who just dropped everything when she didn't get her way. Shit is gonna happen sometimes and you aren't going to get bailed out, but at that point she just gave up not only on her faith in the gods but in herself as well (at least how I viewed it).

Again its not like it should have been too surprising. It was a stupid situation in the first place so from the POV of the gods in that instance they may not bail you out for it (then again I understand that in a freakin warzone when everything is falling apart people may go apeshit and not think rationally...but she seemed to be going into it thinking that the gods "owed her" I think and boy was she wrong) .
---

yep, I totally agree with your analysis there. I guess ultimately what I was going for with this chapter was basically... okay, so... they obviously got themselves into this mess and did not seem like they deserved to be saved. however, in real life, sometimes people get things they don't deserve. sometimes they get themselves into trouble and get bailed out even when they should have been punished. it's unsatisfying but it's a different type of realism from what I generally write. probably will not go back to this element of narrative again though because ultimately in the end it was even unsatisfying for me after I published it. haha.
---

sometimes people get things they don't deserve.

No kidding...

(Glares at CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS Bodwin)
---

12. D
Bonus. B

So, apparently Majore can resist instant-death attacks from gods (well, at least from the quiet ones.) Damn.
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MariaTaylor posted...

Alura says that she would never have accepted such Gods. in essence, she's saying that she does not fear death and that she denies the Quiet One and does not accept him. the Quiet One, seeing that she does not fear death, chooses a different form of punishment. HE DENIES HER AGENCY by saving her despite the fact that she refused to accept him as a God.

hahaha

I missed that in reading, but knowing that makes me like the chapter a lot more
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12.C.

Bonus:A.
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Thanks for the links.
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no problem
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Speaking of links

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/75658235

Topic 4!
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bump

I assume people may want to still look over the old materials for the next few days
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bumpo

play ib
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