Galactic Nexus/Episode 9: Resolves of Sacrifice

**Resolves of Sacrifice** is the ninth episode of the first season of Galactic Nexus.

## Story so far

"As inscribed in the prophecy, a young man named Frisch Celerent walks on a path where the future of being the ruler of time and space, the Harvester, awaits him. The bringer of the unholy flames, Everburn, had made his attack on the camp with a legion of hellfire angels... which seemed to kept at bay thanks to the combined effort of Julia and my host. But then Verzleinir and Locar had appeared for more, but why? Were they searching for something that the campers have that they don't? Perhaps items or even information? Meanwhile, there is something that bothers me—a distant enigmatic presence lurking within the shadows of the forest. Such marks the eighth page of the history of the Harvester in another realm." — Irissia

## Roleplay

Back at camp was an impending skirmish between the campers and the invaders. But why did Everburn suddenly take the battle to the campers when the latter had finally regrouped? To be fair, Verzleinir and Locar joining his side was pure coincidence...

Or was it?

Regardless, the white figure oversaw the encounter from a safe distance. What are they up to anyway?

Locar practically oozed bloodlust at the moment, for someone who proclaimed himself one of peace. He seemed to show an uncanny desire for combat, almost hypocritical one would say. Still, as he stood by Verzleinir he could not help but note the gathered Prismites, then the mobians and other assorted creatures.

"My my my, I'm quite pleased with the turn out; others from my home; but from strange time periods..? Perhaps this would be a fun time to ask how things proceeded in your eras no..?" Locar started, his smile threatening to split his face, the sheer excitement he felt could not be tempered. "No, I must focus.."

He would then point at the Mobians of the group.

"You there, furred creatures..? Might you share with me the location of these 'Chaos Emeralds' that have plagued my mind as of late..? I wish to acquire them for my own ends~!"

His posture was quite relaxed, his Prismatic Armament hanging loosely in his hands as if registering most of the group as a non-threat, on the other hand he carried the staff with the golden snake curled around the top like a symbol of his authority; regardless, the staff itself seemed to exude a subtle presence, as if there was something great and unknowable residing in it; a power that was barely even tapped into. Despite this, he had the temperance of a seasoned warrior, one who has endured the horrors of total war, a leader of sorts, a general who fights on the front.

Despite his attempts of non-threatening body language, the Prismites of the Scythes' current contingent had taken note of the disturbing actions Locar made a short while ago. Not only that, Frisch and even Seele were sensing something ominous from him.

"... You seek power for your selfish ends, don't you?" Frisch noted.

Without think of a plan of attack, Darkstorm charges right at Everburn clashing his Angelic Blade with Everburns Hellfire Blade leaving the others to deal with Everburns Hellfire Angels as they drop from the sky to face the heros.

Blaze the Hedgecat pants from near exhaustion trying to keep the flames at bay but her hands are slightly burned, "Jackku, I need some help."

Tosha enters his wraith state and twirls his twin daggers before using his wraith scream.

Jack quickly rushes to Blaze the Hedgecat's aid by blasting more pressured water beams at the HellFire Angels' flames to help put out the flames. "It's ok, Blaze. I got your back" said Jack, who he ensures the safety of Blaze the Hedgecat while working together with her.

Patricia & Layla meanwhile, we're doing their best on avoiding the flame attacks of the HellFire Angels before they begin trying to blast more purple & lunar magic orbs at the oncoming HellFire Angels. "Be on guard. Those Angels are hot to the touch." said Layla while realising that these HellFire flames can really burn someone if not careful.

In all honesty, odds are Julia's point defense system thing was probably enough to deal with the swarm of angels. Not only that, Seele's astral dome had already formed a one-way boundary between them and the angels. So to speak, those who got burned by the angels might have been hit by them before she made the dome or were too reckless in general.

If the wraith scream was a directed attack then Locar would attempt to protect himself from it by creating a solid wall of gold matter fifteen inches thick in front of him. Were it to serve its purpose well, then he would direct the vessel atop his staff to slither towards the gold; shaping it into a much larger vessel that resembled an Egyptian king cobra before ordering it to snap at Tosha.

Simultaneously, he would change the armament configuration of his khopesh to what resembled another staff like object; the shaft of the khopesh extending until its length was comparable to a proper spear, and the actual curved blade of his Armament extending and curving to match the length of the extended shaft somewhat. A series of two black Prismion scripts surrounded the head of the weapon for a brief moment before the head was lit with black flames. With this complete, he would twirl the spear in his left hand, tucking the shaft under his left armpit with the head of the weapon pointing down as he held the wooden staff that formerly held the serpent vessel atop in a more defensive position, so as to leave no holes in his defenses when he inevitably chose to attack.

Ishvati on the other hand, noting that it was Verzleinir who probably blocked his shot at Everburn earlier, charged towards the Phage of Phages with both cutlasses drawn; spanning the distance in a fraction of a second where he would attempt to bring both cutlasses down on him for an overhead strike.

Verzleinir chuckled innocently as he took note of how fast Ishvati was going towards him. An overhead strike would mean he was leaping towards him as Verzleinir was clearly taller (5'10"). Possessing adequate reflexes and perception to counter the immediate threat, he sidestepped to the right and flung a hard swift slap towards Ishvati's back with a large gelatinous hand which slithered from Verzleinir's right arm and turned into a semi-solid state for it to land a solid hit.

Ishvati seemed to note the sudden displacement of air that a large, gelatinous appendage would create as it was moving towards his back. Thus he pivoted on his back foot without losing any of his gathered momentum; swinging both blades in a horizontal slash; of course with the arcing swing; Prismions would gather along the edge of the cutlasses, resulting in a sudden increase in temperature along the edges comparable to that of the surface of the sun.

A smirk was etched upon Verzleinir's face as the appendage took the hit for its user. The substance reacted with the extreme temperatures, which exuded copious amounts of poisonous gases upon sheer contact. From the concealment of the gaseous substance and Verzleinir's mysterious disappearance from the naked eye emerged multiple invisible strikes toward Ishvati's shoulders, thighs, and midsection, all from behind. If they made contact, he'd notice that the strikes were sharp and dense but he could not see what they were made of. Otherwise, the gas would deal with him.

The problem was that Ishvati was no stranger to gas attacks, and while he was certainly blindsided by the sudden release of gasses, it wouldn't outright cripple him because for the most part his body was covered in bandages; including his nose and mouth. Still something like that wouldn't protect him for long.

Of course, the cloud of gas actually worked against Verzleinir in a way, because the gas would most likely shift in a different direction according to the airflow that the strikes produced when they moved. Alerting Ishvati to their presence; hence why it was likely that one or two strikes might get him; however he wouldn't be rendered helpless as he followed common sense and chose to retreat; trying to escape the range of the gas cloud before enough of the gas could seep through the bandages.

Deep perforations through the thigh and the midsection got to him albeit for a moment. Blood would spurt out of the affected areas and some gas would slowly seep into the wounds, seemingly not because of natural displacement of surrounding air.

Once Ishvati got to a safe distance, he took note of the wounds, and the gas that was slowly seeping into them. From what he could assess; this one had abilities relating to gas. Admittedly a problem he didn't expect to run into, however; he had a solution for his wounds at least. Pressing his hands against his thigh and midsection; he would channel immense heat into the wounds in order to cauterize them. There was no scream of pain or anything. "... This ability is confusing.. Hmm.."

The poison gas around them slowly cleared out, revealing Verzleinir from behind the cloud, with a smile still on his lips.

"Would you like to know why you are here?" he asked, the threat he exuded seemingly subsiding.

Ishvati just stared at Verzleinir warily, pointing one of his cutlasses at the strange individual before nodding slightly. Frankly speaking it was puzzling why he was here, but in the end it wasn't that big of a detail to him.. Details were more of the others thing, he preferred it to be simple.

"An anomaly has caused different people from different times and places to gather upon this planet—Mobius, the chaos center."

Wait... What?

Why would he reveal such essential information even though they were not of the same side? Strange...

"Eh..? Anomaly..? Aghhhh; this is Ranny's thing, not mine.." Ishvy grumbled, rubbing his head a few times in consternation; what little of his face that could be seen showed clear signs of confusion over the subject matter. He didn't even take into account that he was literally talking to the one he was trying to fight earlier.

"To put it simply, you were brought here by accident. I'll leave details to the others, for you seem confused at the moment~"

Verzleinir looked at the Mobians and Apocalians ganging up on Locar. He even saw Frisch observing them from a safe distance. Seele was maintaining the dome that encased all except the hellfire angels. Lastly, Heiz looked between the two skirmishes: Darkstorm and Everburn, and the five-on-one. The latter five even seemed to have a bit of trouble so he prepped for a good opportunity to strike. Frisch was watching him, after all.

"I thought it'd be fun to test the Mobians once again. They seem to have improved... somehow, but still not within their opponent's caliber. If you wish to fight me personally, then you are free to hop in!"

Ishvati just stared, rubbing his head in confusion as to how this played out. Rather weird but at the same time confusing enough to throw him off balance. "... Details, ech, wish Ranny was here. Or Sethyl... Maybe not Sethyl, she'd probably do the haughty thing.. Maybe."

Tosha whimpers in pain as the snake bites him sending Teniahk in a rage as she tries to take control of the Cobra.

The snake, which was probably as long as your average serpent with the added fifteen inches; would have most likely bit Tosha's neck if it succeeded in biting him. However, something interesting would happen when Teniahk tried to assert control over the cobra. Rather than asserting control over the vessel, mainly because it wasn't a live cobra to begin with. Teniahk would feel something... ancient, older than him, and very... chaotic, peer into her mind; a singular inferno for an eye that spoke of horrors beyond her understanding, of great power that seemed to be roughly comparable to even that of the Hollow Empress. Something of raw, primal terror that judged her as inferior, as an ant not even fit to be stepped on.

Of course, this would also leave Teniahk open in the real world, with her mind having been *pulled* somewhere else by whatever was inhabiting the vessel. Thus leaving her open for Locar to toss the spear in his hands at her midsection. If he was successful, odds are it would pierce through her gut, and even if it didn't pierce; so long as it made contact with her then she would have been caught in a torrential blaze of black fire that formerly lit up the head of the spear itself.

Jack, Patricia, Layla turn to see this in a panic, while Layla quickly tries to blast at Locar the oncoming spear with Lunar magic, while Jack & Patricia tries to pull Teniahk out of the way together to try & prevent Locar from hurting or injuring Teniahk. Layla screamed at the top of her lungs, while trying to stop this with the group's help. "Teniahk! Look out!".

The spear was thrown in a way that led to Layla having to prioritize whether or not to pelt Locar or the spear with Lunar magic; however Locar was able to shift his posture in time to knock the attack headed his way away with the reinforced wooden staff that the golden serpent vessel normally rests on top of. Still, now Locar's attention was on Jack, Layla and Patricia.

"Excellent, I have your attention; now answer my question, you knaves.. Where are these so called *Chaos Emeralds* hidden..!?"

"Like we ever tell a madman like you that nearly killed our friends for the sole purpose of power," said Patricia while she growls a bit in disdain at Locar for nearly injuring Teniahk.

"And it's not that even simple, even if we told you, they would be scattered away after their use!" said Jack, while being defensive against Locar.

"In other words, we're not telling their exact locations," said Layla while she, Patricia & Jack get themselves prepqred & powered up to battle against Locar, as Jack begins blasted boiling hot pressured water beams at Locar, while Patricia blasts magic orbs in a multiple number against Locar, while Layla does the same like Patricia, only with lunar magic orbs, all trying to at least push or damage at Locar the best they can as a team, having been trained to become stronger.

They may have trained to become stronger, but Locar was forged in the hell known as war—something which showed in the ease that he moved through the assembled attacks of the three Mobians. Shifting away from the streams of pressurized water and moving between orbs of magic fired at him as he headed towards the closest one, the Mobian named Layla.

It should be noted that he was moving towards them within the span of a few seconds, and the moment he was close enough to engage Layla in melee combat; he would quickly throw a jab aimed for her threat with his left hand. If this jab connected then the odds of the strike disorienting her would be high as she would struggle to breathe; potentially giving Locar enough time to grab her by the neck and toss her towards the stream of pressurized water Jack was firing while moving on towards Patricia.

"The mere fact that they exist makes me feel better, in gratitude I will tear you apart limb from limb!! So come at me you worthless sons and daughters of weak men!! I will tear you apart like many who have opposed me before!"

While everybody else was busy fighting their respective opponents, it seemed Julia was left by her lonesome to fend off the swarms of Hellfire Angels. Thankfully she had Seele's dome-shield to negate the death effects of the Hellfire Angels, which were possibly dying *en masse* due to the rate of fire of the point-defenses were firing, as well as the fact that they were explosive 20mm bullets. Though even to Julia she thought this wouldn't be enough to fight off the hordes - so she thought of a pretty crazy idea.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as if she were concentrating, before put her hands together. After a couple of seconds, a white aura appeared around her hands, while she slowly separated them so yet another light could manifest in-between her hands. It was noted though that the more she separated her hands, the bigger and brighter the light had gotten... what was she up to? Whatever it was, it was probably something big.

Layla quickly teleported out of range of the hell-raised Locar with her magic to try & create some separation from him to continue blasting her lunar power with a mix of her powerful dark powers from long ago, to try & keep Locar away from Patricia's reach. While Jack & Patricia continues to keep their distance from Locar, seeing how powerful he already is, while Jack uses super speed to do so while trying to keep Blaze the Hedgecat & Teniahk safe from harm. Meanwhile if the sudden attack from Layla succeeded, it would have blinded Locar in a flash of bright light of the full moon, while keeping him disorienented himself. If not, Layla would keep teleporting with Jack & Patricia, Blaze THC & Teniahk by using her magic to keep out of Locar's reach.

Honestly, the sudden teleportation would not surprise him, though he did raise an eyebrow at the sudden instance of teleportation. As for Layla's surprise attack; well considering his focus has been on Layla initially, it really would not work; however, since hand to hand wasn't working he chose to use another route; raising his hand he would recall the spear; watching as it disappeared in a haze of black flames only to reappear in Locar's hand.

"Come now, you think to wear me down with ranged combat? Do you honestly believe me so weak that I could be defeated this way!?" Locar shouted, his face morphing into a savage grin as he batted away every attack headed his way with a sort of sadistic glee; slowly stepping towards the group while laughing slightly; only retaliating with the sudden stream of black flames that spread in an arc towards not only the group of Mobians, but the areas protected by Seele's bubble.

With the words he had spoken earlier, Verzleinir walked towards the five-on-one skirmish packing a genuine smile of fun amidst the chaos. Surely everyone in such a skirmish might notice the new challenger.

"I'll be approaching you... Let's see what you're made of!"

Frisch's Prismatic Eyes moved around the battlefield, observing Locar's proficient use of Prismatic Arts—the nature of his powers, the scripts involved, etc.

Now if Locar were using it to help defeat the Hollow Empress instead of mowing anyone down in his way towards the Chaos Emeralds, he would have thought of an interesting way to benefit from his expertise. Unfortunately, this seemed like a lost possibility, what with the hideous presence that accompanied the man.

As such, he made sure he was prepared to bring him down, as well as Verzleinir, whom he had noticed walking towards the allies. To do that, he had to take the reins of his contingent himself.

"... Heiz, support my assault. Elainne, tend to Julia for me," he ordered as he made his way towards the major skirmish.

"I got your back, brother!" Heiz confirmed as he followed from behind him, fists and wings ready for more effort.

Seele nodded in affirmation. She pointed her scepter at Julia—turquoise rings of Prismion scripts manifesting around it. As soon as a Prismion command circle appeared from the tip of the scepter, something haf resolved in favor of Julia—spiritual augmentation, which would enhance the latter's mental concentration and stability through her soul, thereby reducing workload on her brain while using magic.

Afterwards, Seele pointing her scepter overhead—an array of mint green circles of Prismionic script surrounding the hellfire angels. But what for...?

They attempted to swarm inside the dome; their single-minded states makes them fly in perfect unison it's almost artistic if not for the fact that releasing them would increase the temperature... which unfortunately was currently impossible as Seele's dome was still intact. In fact, they would be repelled back into the large Prismion circle trap Seele had set up a few seconds earlier... which for strange reasons has not resolved its effects yet.

Teniahk tends to her brother still shaken by what she saw in the Cobra's mind. Nista is still trying to gain dominion of the great serpent but Teniahk has since stopped her attempts. Blaze the Hedgecat is bandaging her hands while the others fight as she sits next to Jack. Darkstorm had not returned from his fight with Everburn.

Nista would find that her attempts would be useless, not only because the vessel wasn't alive to begin with; but the fact that the consciousness residing in the vessel was by far much too powerful to simply control. Furthermore, Nista would have earned its ire in the form of a psionic backlash; his or her mind feeling as if numerous glass shards were jammed into her skull.

"Ah... You know, there was something that was said that I don't quite agree with. The assumption that I am committing such atrocities solely for the sake of power; you are incorrect." Locar stated calmly, his approach never ceasing even as he talked. "I do this because the road to peace is paved with the bodies of those who oppose it; by standing in my way, you oppose the tranquility I seek to bring to my world, to all worlds if possible; and for that, you will fall... I have committed many atrocities in the name of peace, and I will commit many more! The ends justify the means, you sniveling curs~!!"

As for Tosha...? Eventually the vessel would let go of its own volition, however in the place of actual venom; its fangs injected scripts and sequences that were admittedly very similar to how it moved; the only major difference was that the results of these scripts being injected into Tosha was that his body would start to transmute into gold; specifically starting with the area the fangs punctured.

Teniahk begins muttering a detox spell to try and reverse the curse while Tosha mutters a spell in Necromancy.

Teniahk's action was the correct course, as the scripts acted in a way similar to a curse the detox spell would reverse the affliction of the scripts, negating the effects of the attempted transmutation.

Tosha pants, grabbing his neck.

"... Then we are not like you..." Frisch countered Locar's words with his own. "... If you really fight for peace, then why are you fighting us, even though there are potentially better options? ? And why do you enjoy doing such things...? Besides... What exactly are *you* fighting for?"

Despite his suspicions of Locar, he chose to deal with him with a bit of talking before actually fighting him. But why...?

Tosha enters his wraith state but each time he does his wound stings from the bite.

"Truthfully, I don't have any real reason to fight you lot, for there is nothing remotely personal about this engagement to me. However, there aren't better options, in a land filled with war. Talking is useless; I learned long ago that the road to peace is paved with sacrifices; war costs lives, and as far as I am concerned this is just another war to me; but what about you..?" Locar asked calmly, actually taking the time to respond to Frisch's words in the middle of the conflict. Something that could leave Locar open to an enterprising surprise attack.

"Judging by your appearance, you and your group are definitely battle-hardened, yet soft where it truly matters. You don't have the look of someone who has experienced loss. Rather, I would hazard that you and your group lived posh, comfortable lives before this? So to that I ask, by what right do you have to criticize my methods when you probably don't even understand the meaning of the word sacrifice? Someone who doesn't understand the concept of sacrificing everything for a belief would never understand my motivation for fighting." He spoke, his tone fraught with vehemence and conviction; staring Frisch dead in the eyes in the way only someone like Locar could.

"I will say it only once, either stand by my side or stand behind me. But do not get in my way even once."

Everburn and Darkstorm appear heavily wounded, regenerating some of their wounds, "This will only end with the other's death. Darkstorm. You know that is your destiny," Everburn says as he puts his face mask back on to hide his half skull.

"Maybe but if I go down then I will take you with me," Darkstorm says, "I have lost too much to let your reign of shadow and fire fall upon this dimension or Terra. I would rather pass onto the next life than see you succeed."

While Julia didn't notice the command circle around her, she did feel that it had gotten significantly easier to concentrate on whatever magic spell she was doing. With Seele's barrier blocking the swarm of Hellfire Angels, her point-defenses were allowed to freely shoot them down one by one - or perhaps in tens, dozens, or even scores (twenty). At this point the light was shining blindingly so, which seemed it was just enough for Julia to cast whatever spell she had cooked up.

She flung the light towards the ground, which upon impacting it shined brighter and brighter, engulfing the area around it until it swiftly subsided. In its place, a really large cannon seemed to have manifested, along with a few point-defenses (five in total) that already began firing red laser beams - the same infrared laser beam cannons that saw action during the previous skirmish between the jet and EggPlankton's group. Though if the point-defenses were firing infrared lasers... what was the large cannon for? It seemed everybody was about to find out - as it took aim towards the swarming hordes of Hellfire Angels.

With a snap from Seele's fingers, the circle trap disappeared in a flash as a flurry of invisible vacuum blades appeared amongst the angels. Air pressure would sharply accumulate within those points and crush anything that makes contact.

Everburn raises a clawed hand halting the swarm upon his command, "This battle is pointless."

Seele snickered. "Too slow."

The swarm in the circle trap would be caught in a sparkly yet unholy chain reaction of fireworks from the onslaught of a multitude of vacuum blades and infrared laser beams. The brightness of the explosions was contained in the middle of the swarm as Seele had manipulated the gases produced by it into a localized sphere.

Serpina watches the results from afar and leads her army from the area seeing how things would not go her way as all the heroes are together to go find the one known as the Hollow Empress.

Frisch gave Locar a firm look despite the pain encumbering his heart as of late, out of the loss of a loved one during the advent of the Hollow Empress upon their homeland. That alone proved Locar's assumption of him not experiencing loss dead wrong.

"... This is not war, first and foremost... Regardless, it looks like we face a similar situation."

He revealed what seemed to be a flower hairpin from his left hand. But whose accessory was it exactly?

Only his Prismite comrades know, as evident from Heiz's and Seele's forlorn faces when they saw the item. But Heiz made it known for Locar to get a gist of what happened to them.

"Our comrade Azalea—my brother's first love... She sacrificed herself to stop the Hollow Empress, even though she alone couldn't do so! And now you talk as if you're the only one worth of making sacrifices? And that we have never experienced loss?! Spare me your bull[bleep]... As if you're willing to sacrifice yourself to bring peace to your realm!"

"... We do need other sacrifices to achieve our goals, I agree. That is if such necessity is beyond our control. But if you are this bent to kill my comrades as sacrifices for your own notion of peace, even though you can avoid it... Then we will do our best to stop you from reaping much worse repercussions. If only you could join us stop the Hollow Empress, but I feel you have more important plans than that. Which means..."

Frisch kept the hairpin in his person and readied Meisnetter to battle with him.

"... Only by battle, we shall settle this. To arms, my brethren! For the harvest... will now begin."

Heiz bumped his fists together, itching to stuff the resolve of the Scythes into Locar's head. "And we are the laborers!"

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To be continued in the next episode...

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