epidemiology | EVENT ★ CRUMBLING WORLD

Are you prepared for the fight of your life? You better be.

The Oska staff and the others who are staying behind gather in the courtyard to wish the recruits luck. It's a much more formal affair than rifting out to missions usually is, with recruits casting spells on each other for luck and for strength, and still others passing around potions and elixirs for healing and stamina.

In addition to Audentes and the guests' teams, there are also a number of ex-convicts from the Asterion Prison ready to rift out as well, and familiar teams like Mariposa, Squirrel Fucker, and Unicorn. The undead catlike humanoid Pomarr stands near a brother and sister recruited from Q-65. A handful of former Zymandis agents look uncomfortable in their new purple uniforms but grimly ready for action, with Mavahari at the head of their team.

And Team Kittypaw, Audentes's big sister team, is of course ready to get their hands (and paws) dirty right alongside everyone else.

A green-skinned alien who works in the Medical Center steps forward and gives a brief statement of hope and a wish for luck. Then the recruits flagged for the rift begin to glow, the world flickers white, and it's time for the crumbling world.

THE LAND AND SKY

When the contingent of ALASTAIR teams rifts in, it's onto a series of unsteady, crumbling stretches of land. Why the land is so unsteady is quickly apparent: they are floating platforms, unused to the sudden weight of so many bodies. The platforms are so wobbly that some unlucky ones may lose their footing and actually go sliding toward the edge. This is not a soft landing by any means.

Once you get your bearings, you'll want to start toward a castle rising in the distance: the Ophiel AI still active inside the ex-Zymandis agents' jewelcomms pinpoints it as the location of the TIMELINE.exe's signal. But don't expect an easy stroll to reach it. The entire landscape is separated into floating, drifting chunks of crumbling earth, with no way to travel between them but to jump.

Making things even more difficult is the steam rolling over the platforms, obscuring the edges and reducing visibility all around. As the planet cracks apart, its surface peels back to let lava heat up the atmosphere, causing the steam and filling the air with oppressive heat and humidity. The lava occasionally burbles up into geysers, so be careful when jumping from platform to platform, and make sure you time it right.

Patrolling some of the larger platforms are Zymandis robot guards. If you avoid the large platforms and take advantage of the camouflage provided by the steam, you might be able to avoid the robots . . . but if the steam clears, look out: they're equipped with laser weapons and can rocket boost short distances to whatever platform you may be hiding on. And not only is their close proximity bad for you, but their extra weight is bad for the already-fragile platforms.

Make it past all these obstacles -- the platforms, the steam, the lava, the robots -- and you'll find the biggest platform where the castle sits, itself a crumbling mass of stone.

THE CASTLE

The castle is made of dark and brittle stone, and is palpably thrumming with magic and electricity, like a dark twin to Oska's own castle. It's situated on a platform floating high above the others, fortuitously far enough from the lava below that there's a respite from the humidity and heat. But this far up in the sky, the opposite appears to be the problem: the wind is cold and biting, threatening to push anyone right off the ledge. Best push on into the castle itself.

Just beyond the massive gated door is the grand hall of the castle, though in its crumbling state, it's objectively not very grand at all. Elaborate stained glass windows once filled the walls and ceiling, most of the panes now on the ground in jagged piles of glass alongside stone rubble. It's probably best not to stand in one place for too long -- you never know when some other structure in the castle will collapse.

Some time may be spent exploring the grand hall before moving on, though there's not much to find. A rusted halberd here, a pile of useless debris there. The Ophiel AI urges everyone to move on to find the TIMELINE.exe, but there's suddenly a noticeable chill in the air and from the staircase descends a trio of white-robed figures.

The figures are spirit wizards, Ophiel quickly explains; they have no physical body but are instead formed by pure spiritual energy. As long as one lives, they will keep reforming as three, so all of them will need to be taken out all at once. Physical attacks won't be very effective against beings without a physical form, Ophiel continues; burn them away with magic and the elements and you might stand a chance.

The spirit wizards can fling people about with wind magic, electrocute with lightning magic, and engulf anything in flames. Lacking a physical form, they can also teleport, so protecting one another is an important strategy to survive the battle.

The other teams are all practiced warriors in one way or another, but with so many people in one place, all fighting the same enemy, some organization is called for before it becomes an all-out catastrophe. The castle, after all, can only withstand so much accidental fire before it's game over.

OOC NOTES

Welcome to the last mission of the season! This log will ICly last three hours, with the next log picking up immediately afterward. If you have any questions about this log, please direct them to the dossier.

Because this log is going up near the end of the month, you may use threads started in October for November AC, provided you don't use the same thread for October AC as well.

NOTE: November is the last month for AC Bonus Bank! The Bonus Bank will close on December 5th, 23:59 UTC. To celebrate the finale, we are removing the coin cap, meaning you can submit more than 100 coins with no upper limit. Coin balances will not transfer to Season 2.

If you have questions about the game in general, please use the game FAQ.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Urahara observes all of this with a scientist's fascination, which is exactly the wrong thing to be focused on right now.

And yet... it's perfect. He's gonna downplay that, however. Even in a right state, he doesn't want to admit that this is all a ploy to use people to his advantage.] Well~ I know I can damage them, but I need to focus and as you can see, I'm not really in the best shape right now. You seem like you'd have no problems distracting them, though.

[Of all people, Kisuke seemed to grasp Ban's sense of humor with ease even without meeting him prior. Turning around, Ban offered him a toothy grin and reached up to begin rolling his shoulders--stretching out. He took a slow stride in the direction of the wizards, who were chasing other soldiers in circles while ultimately staying cautious to not distance themselves too much. They were shifting the distances between themselves quickly enough to make it apparent that their strategy was either well-practiced or the result of intelligent programming.]

I can do that. Think you can hit all of them at once? [Ban reached up with one hand--a sectioned staff rising up out of the rubble a few dozen meters away before it spun into his hand with a sharp ringing sound. At that, one of the wizards glanced over towards Ban. It tilted his head, curious. Unspeaking, its body language spoke plenty. It didn't know why Ban was still alive.

Apathetic to that glance, Ban kept his eyes on Kisuke for a moment. The bedraggled scientist looked pretty bad off. It was one thing to put on a facade but he was sure those injuries would have killed plenty of other people.]

And, can you manage?

[Urahara tilts his head up, a tiny smile playing across his lips. Fighting is the whole nature of a shinigami, and his own innate bloodlust has been tempered down because letting loose once was enough for one day, thank you very much, but Ban seems to be fully capable of both understanding and dealing with the type of raw power he wields.

And besides, Benihime hasn't really stopped singing. Its weaker, due to extended use of his Bankai, but her battlesong always rings out in these situations, pleading for him to wake her up.

His grip on his sword tightens and he shifts himself into a fighting stance.] Oh, I don't think that will be a problem at all. Let's do this.

Kahah. Well, good. I wouldn't wanna have to plan too much around watchin' you too much.

[Since it was obviously enough to him that Kisuke, while injured, seemed to be regarding things with the sort of urgency that came with the strong and intelligent. He knew what sort of difficulty was presenting itself to him but that sort of confidence could only really ever be the genuine sort.]

Well, then-- I ought to start~.

[Casually, Ban shifted his weight to one hip--and one of the specters split in half. His staff spun from one shoulder to another and the whistle of the air blade he sent flying followed as a section of the castle was cut clean apart by the air blade's remaining trail. Just as quickly, Ban tore another blade of wind from the end of his staff that caught it off guard, prompting one of the other specters to attack with a bolt of lightning. He dove past it, feeling the heat of it surge past his face before he cut the next specter in half. Even then, the first one was already reforming and beginning to cast a spell in the form of ghostly flames just as the third sprayed a stream of acid in the way of Ban's next step. He side-stepped it, cut down the third ghost and moved to attack the first ghost again just as the second reformed as well. Though it looked like all Ban could do was briefly dissipating the ghosts, it would become clear--he was keeping them distracted by forcing them to focus each attack on him once they regenerated. One would go down and the other two would prepare spells. Inch by inch, Ban was forcing them closer and closer to one another in the center of the collapse chapel. Each spell burned at him and took pieces off of him but he didn't slow down even a little, waiting for Kisuke to build up his next move.]

Alright, hit 'em!

[Ban was still in the center of it but--it didn't seem like he was in a hurry to get out.]

Hm. [Fascinating. Luckily, Urahara is efficient at multi-tasking so he can plan his strategy while observing the other man's fighting style and brutal disregard for his own safety. Such a series of receiving and giving blows would normally cause a man to lose a step, but Ban seems to be fully in control.

Well. It's his turn now- not nearly as showy as all that, but it will do what he needs to be done, he calls out the words, focusing power in his blade and gives it one good swing, sending ripples of blood-red energy all the way towards the fight. Ban will either get out of the way or he'll get torn up by it along with the wizards- spiritual energy of that magnitude isn't good for a human, though he sincerely doubts that's what Ban is. Either way... He's not concerned with hitting him, because Ban, himself, doesn't seem concerned with it.]

EVENT ★ CRUMBLING WORLD

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sorry, i died D:

YOU'RE GOOD <3

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