//------------------------------// // Chapter 55 // Story: Friendship is Scaleless // by Limescale //------------------------------// “Thou cannot hope to hide forever, Celestia.” Kalameet seethed as he smashed another section of the Oolacile township down to rubble. Again, while the act of destruction was mildly cathartic, the annoyance at finding nothing besides the fetid remains of hollowed bodies and rotting furniture made his rage burn all the hotter. “Naught but death resides hither. T’is better to accept and face it on thine hooves. To cower shalt only invite the abyss to take thine soul instead.” The great black dragon threatened as he came to the limits of the township, and the start of the Royal Wood. “And if I do, you’ll only kill me and go on terrorising Equestria. Whereas if I keep you guessing, you’re more likely to start spilling your secrets.” Celestia’s voice echoed from all around the woods. Kalameet growled darkly as he charged into the trees, knocking aside any scarecrow or stone guardian foolish enough to rush forward to stop him. “Secrets, hah! The only secrets I hold art the truth which thou art too blind to have realised by now, or too afraid to accept.” Kalameet paused as he came to a cliff overlooking an all too familiar valley. Slavering, feral attack dogs patrolled around jagged spikes of crystal as pitch black as that of his own scales. “Look around thee, Celestia, and see the proof that this wretched domain shares with thine own. Do thine eyes deny it? Dost thine soul refuse to believe what art laid bare?” He demanded while leaping off the cliff and spreading his wings. “I see only what I seek to prevent happening to Equestria. To stop you from doing to us what you’ve done to this place!” Celestia replied. Kalameet grinned as he noted her voice sounded much closer now. Had she really been so stupid as to lead him to the one area she’d be at the greatest disadvantage facing him in? Well, she WAS blaming him for something that he had nothing to do with... “Foolish equine. Most wondrous art mine sins, but this, the fall of Oolacile, is not one of them!” He declared, scanning the valley and the woods around it. “This realm’s doom is the fault of its own people. For believing that toothy serpent that fate dids’t send to them, to poison their ears with tales of fortune and glory, if only they might desecrate the grave of their common father!” The giant black dragon swooped down, grabbing several of the black crystals and pulling them from the ground as if they were mere weeds. “If it be true, I am guilty of the doom that hath followed in any manner, t’was mine seizing the opportunity that Manus presented, and what good timing that opportunity was!” Kalameet stared at the crystals, seeing his own warped visage in their polished onyx faces. To think of how long it had been since he last gazed at a similar reflection, in a similar toned crystal. The countless millennia in between had barely changed him at all. With a roar of renewed wrath, Kalameet crushed the crystals in his hands, unleashing from them an inky black essence that he cast across Oolacile. “Hadst I not enslaved the Father of the Abyss, and bended his will to mine own, nothing that hath come to pass woulds’t be possible. The home Sombra hath made possible would remain beyond my reach, mine brother would have fallen to the blade of the unworthy folk...” The dragon’s central gaze narrowed as he spied a shining ball of sunlight amidst the darkness released by the crystals. Celestia really had made possibly the worst move imaginable in choosing a hiding spot! “And we would not be met now, so that I may enlighten thee to truth, and stop thee from denying it as such!” He roared while soaring across the valley and dive bombing Celestia’s location, in the area beyond that. *** “I don’t know how else to describe it. It was unlike any other dragon I’ve seen! It looked as ancient as the everlasting, but… it’s body… everything about it was wrong!” Ciaran breathlessly explained. Her fellow knight, Hawkeye Gough, nodded sagely. “T’is as I feared, then. The beast I hath heard tell of… whispers of a dragon so ancient and terrible, none in Anor Londo dared to provoke its wrath. He rises again to pose us duress?” The giant archer queried. Ciaran nodded in shock. “I thought as much. He is called Kalameet. A ferocious beast indeed, and whose anomalous stature I did often ponder.” Gough paused to check the wood carving he was working on, feeling it with his fingers as he did with the ones before it. “So much like Seath he is, and yet so different, too. Two souls that many hath believed kin of the Everlasting Dragons… yet, e’en in blindness I could sense they were far too ancient to be thus.” The giant sighed. “How classic that with all the Great Lord did to end their reign, fate hast chosen that the dragons shalt never be forgotten. In the war, we knights fought valiantly, but for every one of them, we lost three score of our own. Exhilaration, pride, hatred, rage… The dragons teased out our dearest emotions. And now...” Gough turned as he heard the clamor of Celestia and Kalameet’s battle resuming. “Now, as the darkness comes to snuff out the light, the most powerful and darkest dragon still flies true and strong, while all we hath made falls to ruin around him.” Ciaran clenched her fists as Celestia burst from the trees of the Royal Wood, dodging a stream of black fire as Kalameet burst out after her. “Well, we haven’t fallen yet! There’s still time for us to do some good… to see that those we have lost did not die in vain.” The assassin declared, taking comfort from the warmth of Artorias’ soul burning softly in her pack. “Gough, I need your help one last time. My own bow isn’t strong enough to take down a dragon, but yours felled the Everlasting Dragons by the score!” The giant turned to where his likewise sized greatbow lay. A weapon so powerful and requiring so much strength only he’d been able to wield it… and indeed he could wield it again, if the need arose... “Skyward or no, Kalameet will not be put down easily… but then again, what is bravery without a dash of recklessness?” Gough chuckled as he heard Celestia prove his point, charging Kalameet dead on and firing a solar bolt at him at point blank range. To her relief, the dragon was forced to withdraw as the sheer concentrated power proved his scales were not entirely impenetrable, nor was he entirely invincible. “A shame I am not able to do this for the one to whom it is owed, she who performed the ultimate service to Artorias.” The archer commented, causing Ciaran to shudder as she clutched her pack protectively. “But a whisper on the wind tells that she shalt know of our liking for her in due course. Very well, let Gough be graced once more by the greatest calling of Knighthood!” The giant put down his carving and reached for his bow as Kalameet dove back into the area beyond the valley to evade Celestia’s beams. With dust flaking off his armor, the giant archer notched one of his great arrows, taking a moment to feel it over and check that it was up to his standards. “Mmm… a fine work indeed. Such harmony is there in the union of tree bark and stone.” Gough mused as he turned his head to the air. Kalameet burst out of the valley again as Celestia depleted her energy reserves. His flank was scorched from the sunlight, his right wing betraying its injured status with a flap that was just a hair slower than the left. Gough noted all of this as he began to pull back his arrow, grunting as the tautness of his bow demanded every last bit of strength he had. Ciaran thought to tell him when to let loose, then realised that was pointless. Gough had been robbed of his sight, but for the leader of Gwyn’s Great Archers, with so many years and so much experience under his belt, that was no handicap. “Hrrrmmm… yes. Never shall a truer shot be loosed than this!” Gough declared as he reached full draw, further quelling Ciaran’s doubts. The assassin looked to Celestia, who likewise turned and seemed to realize assistance was at hand. She turned and flew away, forcing Kalameet to give chase. “The bat will be grounded for a good spell! From there, I ponder… will it be hands that fate leaves the remainder in? Or hooves? Ho ho, such are jolly ponderings for such dire times.” Gough laughed as he steadied his bow. Kalameet came into range, his focus centered entirely on Celestia. Gough listened carefully to what his surroundings told him. The flap of wings. The rush of air. The growing volume of rage filled growls getting closer. Kalameet reached the perfect spot to be taken down. “Haah!” Gough exclaimed as he let his arrow fly. The giant missile sailed across the heavens, its lethally honed tip dipping ever so slightly as it arced to hit Kalameet right where it would truly count, where he would thus be crippled and could darken the skies no more. The arrow closed in… this was it! Kalameet promptly halted in mid air, wrenching his torso back out of harm’s way. Rather than strike the intended area on his wing joint, the arrow instead cut a long gash across his chest, before the black dragon managed to reach out and catch it with his hand. Oolacile went dead silent with disbelief. “Grrrrgh… heh heh heh, how ironic. That the blind seeth more than e’en those with blessed vision, and yet still fate doth not reveal all to them.” Celestia turned around, gasping in shock as Kalameet spun the arrow around and threw it like a javelin back at Gough. “Seven times thou hast felled me with that shot, noble archer.” The black dragon seethed as Gough was pierced through the chest by his own arrow, sending him flying across his perch and pinning him to the far wall. “Never shalt there be an eighth!” Celestia let a single, horrible moment pass, looking at the slain archer and his most darkly poetic means of being taken down. Her rage then overtook her and she charged again at Kalameet, hitting him with everything she had. *** Far, far below Oolacile, amidst the ever expanding darkness of the Abyss, stood two souls that had both been birthed at the same time, yet had never once met before, and originally had never intended to. Yet now they at last stood face to face, another abomination made possible by the increasingly tangled web that fate had woven for them. Manus held out Sombra’s horn to Gravelord Nito, who could only creak in wonderment at his fellow Lord Soul bearer’s sheer brass coated nerve. “With one hand thou steals us away from our domain. Now with the other, thee asks of the same blasphemy so many of thine children has’t across eons.” The mountain of skulls and bones commented as he accepted the horn. “So much of humanity’s fear of death is thus at once explained and justified. Ho what twisted revelations this abduction doth bring!” “Yea… ngh… t’was a duty… grgh… duty of… graaargh… great offense… this I knew. ARGRAGH! But… also… REEAAARGHH… of… GRRRGH… of great… great importance.” Manus growled as he shook and gripped his staff for dear life. “Not even one… GRRRRRGH… one soul thou would seek to spare from.... ARGLE! From thine embrace… but… GRAGH!... if thou would… nrrrrgh… would but see what I see.... GRAWWWWR… returning the flame to one life… woulds’t render thousands more unto thine dominion!” Nito cocked his uppermost skull to the side. “Thou claimeth once more that this one trespass woulds’t nevertheless uphold death’s laws. Dost thou now present proof of thine claim?” He asked skeptically. Manus nodded his massive horned head; an act that seemed to upset his balance as he had to slam his giant simian hand on the ground in order to keep himself upright. “I… nrrrgh… I do… with thanks to she who… ngh… knows of times not of this land… RAWRRGHH… and is cursed to forever walk them as her own… GRRRRGH… ceases to be!” Manus smashed his catalyst staff on the ground, summoning a ball of light that seem to cause him even more pain as it illuminated his warped, hobbled and dreadful visage. Closing many of his eyes, the Abyssal being turned and hurled the light across the chamber, revealing the body of a human female, dressed in a supremely elegant gown of fine spun ivory silk, complete with elbow length gloves, and a simple yet significant crown of gold with shimmering wings upon her head. “The Princess Dusk… ngh… of Oolacile… ha-URGH… hath been mo-most helpful… RGRAGH… in seeing what is… ARGRAGH… what is to come!” Manus explained as the princess stirred and looked uneasily up at her captors. *** “So… after punishing Trixie far more than she deserved, beating it into her head that since no one else gives a buck about her, she should do the same in return… now that she has accepted this and made her peace with it, she’s granted a chance for revenge.” Trixie glowered as Patches nervously tried to back away from her, only to then remember he was in the same pit as her, and thus his escape was blocked on pretty much every side. “Trixie has to wonder… is this a trick? A test? Or does somepony, somewhere, actually still like her?” The unicorn seethed through her teeth. Patches shakily held up his hands. “Well… erm… let’s first calm down. Nice and relaxed, we all are… and then talk about that.” He grinned through the cold sweat glazing his face. “Look, I did you wrong. Not going to try and deny that. But if we could just look at this from my situation for a moment… please, can we see this from my position for a moment?” Trixie’s horn flared with building magic. Patches swallowed and quickly cut to the chase. “These temptations, the promise of glory one can achieve if they brave the dangers of Lordran… they’re pretty overwhelming are they not?” Reah jumped back as the deceitful trickster pointed at her. “Is that not why you came down here? Or you?” He pointed at Trixie, then promptly jerked his hand back as the unicorn aimed her blazing horn at him. “We’re all undead outcasts here! Trying to survive via whatever means possible! Only thing that separates us from the hollows is our purpose! Yours was seeking that… uh… that Rite thing you mentioned… yours was to rescue her! Mine was simply to find the means to get out of this damned tomb!” Patches hastily added. Reah clenched her fists around her talisman. “And you hoped to do this how? By looting the corpses of everyone you pushed into this pit?” She accused. Patches gave a nervous shrug. “You saying you wouldn’t have done the same? I saw another soul doing exactly that when she came down after you!” He declared. Reah’s nerve wavered. “Another soul?” She asked. Patches nodded hesitantly. “Yeah, was soon after you and I… uh… were met. A girl not looking in the best of states… but my, she still knew her way around a fight! Was smashing skeletons and snatching up everything they dropped with gusto! I… well, I thought it best to just let her do as she pleased, seeing as she was clearly on a mission!” Patches eyes lit up. “I… I think I actually saw her clutching that… that Rite thing you were after!” He said, gritting his teeth as Reah seemed to further lose her resolve to punish him. “This girl… a blonde, was she? With a long braid?” She asked. Patches nodded and Reah covered her face with her hands. “Blonde? Long braid?” Trixie arched a bewildered eyebrow. “You mean Aurelia?” Reah exhaled in pain. “The Chosen Undead… as that foul Frampt called her. Oooh, how twisted yet fitting is this irony!” Now Patches likewise looked bewildered as Reah hung her head. “I called her uncouth, and lacking in judgement! She sought to talk with me, possibly help me in my mission, and I brushed her off as another misguided soul.” Reah looked at Patches, no longer in anger but in lament. “And yet you claim where I and my friends failed, she succeeded? Defeated that Pinwheel beast, and claimed the Rite of Kindling?” Trixie snorted in frustration. “Think she did a bit more than that. From what Trixie saw while travelling with her, she also got something called the Lordvessel that’s allowed her to help us travel around this nightmare, and to reach Equestria, and got herself a lot of armor, weapons, and fire powers too!” The unicorn said, furrowing her brow as Reah dropped to her knees again. “Then this truly is my punishment. The gods presented me with a valuable aid, and I, in my pride and haste, discarded it like rubbish. Fie, I am truly to blame for the death of my friends, and for my disgracing of my faith!” She moaned. Trixie grit her teeth, while Patches mopped his brow and then stuck a gloved finger into his ears. “Erm, sorry, but you sure that fall didn’t actually kill me? I can’t be hearing this right! No charlatan of the cloth would ever admit fault! It’s impossible!” He said. Trixie turned back to him and dragged her hooves across the floor of the pit. “Well if you not sure, then Trixie would be happy to fix that! Burn in Tartarus you bastard!” She said while unleashing her most powerful magical blast... … which then exploded uselessly across the wall beside Patches as Reah turned and tackled the unicorn, upsetting her aim. “No!” The white priestess pleaded. “Please, he is not to blame!” Trixie eyes spun from the impact of her head meeting the stone floor again. With a scream of absolute rage, she shook her head and promptly smashed both front hooves into Reah’s chest. “Not to blame!? He tried to kill Trixie! And you!” She yelled as Reah went flying onto the ground. The priestess wailed pitifully from the painful impact, yet still she managed to prop herself up on one arm, clutching her badly bruised breast with the other. “Yes...but only after Reah betrayed her cause by fleeing from her objective, and if I am to take his confession correctly, he has… understandable cause to hate those of the faith?” She said. Patches nodded cautiously as he got up and approached her. “Uh… yeah, kinda. That whole ‘holier than thou’ attitude you all have is right off putting! Not to mention a testament to the hypocrisy of your faith! Seriously, you ever stop to ponder maybe there’s another reason you’re here? Possibly that your superiors have the same attitude towards undead as everyone else?” Patches spat, before adding in a softer voice. “That said… erm… do you need some help there? That was quite a blow you took!” Reah winced as she tried to sit up, and felt her chest scream in pain. “It is… nothing I do not deserve… for what I have done in my lack of sight.” She whimpered. Patches sighed and reached in his pack. “Well then here. Hopefully this will at least prove I’m sorry!” Trixie blinked in disbelief as the latest soul to betray her trust and try to take her life held out a pair of humanity sprites. He pressed them to the hoof prints on Reah’s robes and the priestess gasped in relief as the pain left her. “Don’t worry, I’ve got the same for you!” He said, drawing out another twin pair of humanities. “Clearly I’m not going to be needing them from here on.” Trixie looked at the offering, her eye twitching as she tried to deem if this was a trick or not. She looked at Patches, who could only shrug. “Look, only reason I kicked you down here was because she was about to spill the beans on what I did to her… even if it was in a moment of emotional instability! Swear on my life, I’ve got no issue with you! Just wanted to make sure you didn’t do… what I’m guessing you’re about to do anyway.” Patches sighed as he set the sprites down on the ground and held up his hands. “You want revenge, fine. Don’t blame you. Probably would do the same if I were in your shoes. Just please know I am sorry, and only do what I do because it’s the only way the gods have deemed I’m allowed to survive!” He said, closing his eyes and cringing as he awaited the blast that would probably break every bone in his body and char his skin to ashes… if it didn’t vaporise him outright. When, after several agonizing minutes, nothing happened, he very cautiously cracked open an eye to see Trixie staring at the sprite. “You… you swear your actions were dictated only by your circumstance… just as Trixie’s actions were dictated, because life has dealt her a similar bout of bad luck...” She said. Patches nodded, which just seemed to tick Trixie off more… even though she continued to hold her fire. “And if I do what is possibly the stupidest thing I’ve done in… the last 48 hours at least, and spare you… what will you do?” She demanded. Patches looked at the ladder that would allow them all to climb out of the pit. While he still couldn’t fathom where it had come from, he decided not to question it. “Probably just go back to the shrine above and let you do… uh… whatever it is you intend to do? At this point, the writing’s clearly on the wall, telling me to give up my looting ways and make another stab at being a merchant. Really, I’ve got all I need, I just… eh, well, once you start looting the dead, it gets a bit hard to stop.” Patches sighed. “Not to mention, swear on my life, this poor girl was never meant to return from her so called ‘pilgrimage’ anyway. She’s not the first undead that was sent here to die by those of the cloth, nor will she be the last. If you want further proof, just stick around here. Sooner or later, some other undead priest or priestess will turn up seeking that Rite of Kindling as well.” Trixie ground her teeth in indecision. She looked at Reah and noticed she was hanging her head, as if grimly accepting Patch’s words. “You… you knew about this?” Trixie demanded. “I… had cause to suspect. My superiors did order me to Lordran, to prove I was still worthy of my title and station, despite my undead status.” She said. Trixie looked to Patches and took a deep breath. “Okay, then this is what’s going to happen. Trixie is going to ascend first, then Reah will follow, and Patches will go last. Patches will take the lead, and guide us out of this damned tomb.” Trixie aimed her horn at Patches. “And if you make one move to pull a lever, or trigger one of the traps Trixie encountered on her way down, Trixie swears you won’t draw breath for long enough to complete the act!” Patches slowly raised his hands in submission. “Given what I’ve just learned from this most insightful conversation, I’d rather let events play out at this point than attempt to interfere.” He awkwardly swore *** “Yes… yeeees! This is beautiful!” Logan gasped and fawned as the Crystal Sage formed an arc of crystal soul arrows and fired them at Twilight, then created another flowery crystal projectile to join the one that was currently pursuing Griggs around the prison. “The command over our Grandfather’s most sacred sorceries, the control, so precise and flawless. What teacher could ask for better?” The big hatted sorcerer smiled in pride as the sage teleported through the prison floor, neatly evading another of Twilight’s blasts and emerging behind the alicorn to retaliate. Twilight tried to turn around, only to feel the wrenching pain of something long and razor sharp spearing her through her flank and her wing joints. She dropped onto her side, her mouth stretching in want of a scream as the crystal sage yanked out the rapier it had stabbed her with, and made to finish her off. It was only stopped by a hail of soul arrows, forcing it to teleport to safety and allowing Griggs to rush to Twilight’s aid. “Princess! Oh no.” The younger sorcerer cried as he saw Twilight’s blood pool around her. “Forgive me… I… this wasn’t supposed to happen! I should have acted sooner!” Twilight grit her teeth as she felt herself losing consciousness again. She bit her lip, using the pain to keep herself focused for a few more moments. “Don’t… don’t worry about me. Just… save yourself. Got something else… I need to try… ngh… keep… keep Logan distracted.” On instinct, Griggs reached for his estus flask… then stopped himself as Twilight’s head flopped lifelessly to the ground. Her body dissolved away into nothingness, leaving only a glowing green aura to mark the latest bloodshed upon the floor. Braving the pain as the second mass of floating crystal exploded across his back, the sorcerer braced himself and got back to his feet. He glared up at Logan, who could only smile in triumph as the Crystal Sage materialised underneath him. Casting an enchantment on his shield, Griggs exhaled and prepared to face his former colleague again. “Mark my words, Logan, much as it saddens me to see you choose this path, I will not cease in my attempts to see that you tread down it no further!” He swore. Logan looked like he was trying not to laugh in response “I have no need to tread any further. The proof of my success is here, plain to see!” He said, giving the crystal sage a nod. “The Dragon School has squandered centuries trying to match up to the expertise of Seath. It shall fall and be lost to time, never once having come close, while I… I have triumphed precisely because I chose the path that souls like you were too cowardly to tread!” Griggs steeled his hands around his catalyst and shield as he heard the bonfire bloom overhead in the prison cells. “I tried to bring you into the fold, Griggs. I left most of my books to you in hopes their contents would turn your mind towards enlightenment. Instead you stand here as lost and ignorant as anyone else, helping a soul whose very presence brings further ruin upon Lordran!” Logan scowled as Twilight emerged from the prison cells. How many times had he killed her by this point? How had she still managed to cling to her purpose and avoid going hollow? The big hatted sorcerer sighed in lament as Twilight primed her catalyst. Very well, if she wanted to still be his test subject, he was far from done with his experimentation. “Perhaps my student shall like to demonstrate what your refusal to humor alternate lines of thought has cost you both.” Logan’s smile reappeared as the crystal sage reeled its head back, like it was taking a huge breath of air. As Twilight then discovered, that’s more or less what it was doing. Specifically, it was preparing to launch the same crystal breath attack that Seath had as his signature move. Ignoring the sharp ache in her withered wing bones, Twilight leaped onto the prison floor as the cells above her were blasted with blistering white crystals. She only got a second to gain her footing before the crystal sage repeated the attack, creating a long trail of crystal spears as its target scrambled to get out of harm’s way. “Via this path I have not only finally unlocked the most sacred sorceries possible, I have risen to stand alongside Seath himself as a true master sorcerer!” Logan declared… right before Griggs shut him up with another hail of soul arrows. “Then you are doomed to share his fate… or what was to be his fate!” The younger sorcerer lamented as he let Twilight focus on the crystal sage and turned all his efforts to Logan. The big hatted sorcerer leaped from his balcony area as it was pelted with the raw magical energy. He landed in the midst of the battle, stumbling and nearly falling over before driving his catalyst into the ground and bracing himself. It seemed his agility wasn’t what it once was back in his youth. Nevertheless, Logan raised his shield for battle, circling around as Griggs likewise followed his movement. “Heh, again you are wrong there. Seath’s terror would not have ended had he died in his precious crystal caves, it would only have spread. Across the ages and throughout the lands the effects of his madness would have rippled and warped many a soul… just as they always have.” Logan laughed again as he raised his catalyst and gave Griggs another shock. The same white crystal breath attack flowed from both the catalyst and Logan’s mouth, giving rise to another field of crystal spikes. Griggs retreated and Logan pursued, not caring as the spikes ripped and tattered his robes. “From one age to another, Seath has only caused misery. Time and time again, the terror he has made possible has warped minds and bodies alike.” The elder sorcerer continued, smirking as the crystal sage knocked Twilight off her hooves with another surprise thrust from its rapier. Griggs checked the alicorn was able to get up and continued the fight, paying her silent awe that she was able to endure the wounds and pain that would’ve destroyed many other warriors. “And yet here you stand, as a fitting example of a mind and body twisted by their obsession with Seath’s work.” He seethed. To his surprise, Logan sighed and shook his head. “Me? No… no, Griggs, I am not an example of what can result from our Grandfather’s insanity.” Logan dramatically pointed his catalyst at Twilight. “She is!” Griggs looked at the alicorn in confusion. She was tactfully backing away from the crystal sage, her head twitching slightly here and there as she studied his attacks. When the robed monstrosity made to summon another field of crystals from under her hooves, the alicorn raised her catalyst and vanished from sight. The sage halted its attack and looked around, frantically stabbing at the air with its rapier. For all the apparent expertise it was supposed to have, being familiar with the ‘Hidden Body’ sorcery was apparently an area it needed a bit more practice in. Sadly this momentary turn of fortune was over all too quickly for Griggs. In his distraction he hadn’t seen the crystal soulmass Logan had conjured, nor were his reflexes fast enough to dodge it. Griggs found himself being speared through several tender parts of his body, effectively nailing him to the nearby wall. He barely had time to register the sudden agony from the multiple impalements before Logan raised his catalyst again and encased his lower body in crystal as well. “If you still doubt me, then stay a while and observe.” The elder sorcerer smiled mocking, even as he felt an uncharacteristic rumble of the prison. He looked up at the sound of another great monstrosity plowing its way towards the prison entrance, and his smile grew even wider and more twisted. “It seems my little experiment just got a new test subject.” Logan hissed in delight as a massive explosion of crystal obliterated the walls around the entrance, tearing down the stone and steel to permit Seath entry to the fray. From a shadowy recess, a pink toned silhouette cringed and hung her head. Seeing she wasn’t going to do much good here, she resolved to make for her next objective with all haste, and get her friends some additional help.