Rodrik Redwall

## " We can't put mask's on and beat people on the streets!" - Rodrik to Kichirô

* Unarmored
* Armor V1
* Armor V2

### Background

Rodrik was born in Sotenheim and always dreamed of becoming king one day. Although he was from a poor family the Soten law stated that only the strong should rule and so Rodrik trained his whole life to become stronger. His dedication was unparalleled,  but he lacked the magical talent that many of his brethren possessed. Unable to cast even the most basic spell, he trained his body to the limit, if he could not beat them by talent, he would beat them in hard work.

The day came for the trials of the fog and Rodrik was ready, he trained himself he would win, he would become king. But it was not meant to be, the magic power of his adversaries was too much for his physical might to surpass and he could not even get past the first trial. Ashamed and defeated Rodrik gave up on his dream and decided to join a boat crew, maybe in some faraway land he would find his place or his purpose.

But Soten had other plans for him, his ship was caught in a furious storm. The winds tore the sails, and the waves smashed the hull. The ship had no chance the crew and vessel vanished under the waves. Could it be, would this be his end? He was to be king, there was nothing he wanted more. No! I will be king! I will! I will! Enraged Rodrik fought with all his might but again it was not enough…It would never be enough he thought as he sank under the waves.

As the life escaped in bubbles from his lungs a shadow moved in the water, gigantic, terrifying. One big yellow eye focused its gaze on him.

“Do you want power?” the voice sounded in his mind “Do you want strength?”

Yes! That was all he could think, he wanted to live we wanted to be king.

“Then take it!”

Suddenly he was no longer dying, the water passed through his lungs like air.

“You belong to me now! Use my power to conquer what you so much desire, you will repay me in time.”

The next thing Rodrik remembered was awakening on a beach somewhere, with no idea where he was. With eldritch power now in his possession Rodrik could finally have a chance at what he so much desired.

### Arrival in the Ladian Empire

Rodrik had ended up on the shores of the Ladian Empire, with no possessions he searched for work in the empire’s capital LadTown.  It did not take long for one of the Lads ministers Aurelius to notice his strength and recruit him to the army. In desperate need of a roof over his head and food in his belly, Rodrik accepted engrossing in the Lad military. For about one week he did the rounds of Ladtown like the regular guards, then an urgent call to arms came from the higher-ups. A zombie hoard had devastated RiverSprings and was rampaging through Ladian territory and an emergency army was being assembled to meet and destroy the hoard. Rodrik was part of that army.

While they marched on to Riversprings the emergency army crossed ways with the Vulcan team on their way to LadTown after their latest mission. Unfortunately, one of the Teams members Dundee died on duty, Aurelius one of the members responsible for the Vulcan team urged to find a successor to Dundee. He chooses Rodrik. Captivated by the words of Aurelius who promised power and fame Rodrik accepted the invite and joined the Vulcan team although his new team members were reluctant to accept him. Rodrik understood and hoped he could prove himself worthy of being their companion soon.

### The Consenti Arc

Rodrik desired to know more about his predecessor, but the Vulcan team refused to speak saying only he died a heroic death. Rodrik was pleased, as surely his predecessor would be alongside Soten for eternity. However, the Vulcan team did not Know who Soten was which spiraled into a full-blown discussion about religion.

After some travel, Aurelius came to talk to Kichiro the horde had split into three and so the army would do the same. The Vulcan team took a small regiment and chased after the smallest of the three hoards.

The day was ending, and night drew near as the Vulcan Team approached a river the leader of the regiment called Kichiro and informed him that the army was tired and they should rest there for the night. Kichiro agreed and the camp began to be set. Rodrik and Baltus searched the margins of the river. Rodrik found nothing but Baltus found tracks of zombies and among them the tracks of someone with a staff.

After the camp was finished the Team began to rest but not even 3 hours had passed when some zombies appeared on the other margin of the River. Kalius and Rodrik set to take care of them but more showed up once one was killed. It was not long until more and more zombies appeared even in their margin of the river.

A full-on battle then broke out with the Ladian military and the Vulcan team defending their position against the zombie horde. To worsen the situation a mysterious man showed up amidst the zombies and attempted to ignite the forest in the army’s margin of the river. Baltus and some soldiers put out one of the fires while Rodrik manipulated water to extinguish the other one. The zombies now surrounded the Ladian army on 3 sides and one of the fires ignited by Destino Ficanoite was starting to spread.

Seeing the situation turn dire Kalius pulled out one of the scrolls he had bought in the mage tower, a mighty prestige fireball scroll. Unraveling the magical paper Kalius uttered the words and then…nothing. In a spectacular failure in the worst of situations, the scroll sharted as Kalius, Edgar; Blitz hard, and Rodrik looked in a mix of confusion and horror. Meanwhile, Baltus directed the soldiers to extinguish the fire that had been able to spread. Rodrik ran to one of the fires and extinguished it as well. The zombie horde started to join together in an attempt to cross the river, however in a stroke of genius and maybe to compensate the absolute shart that was his prestige spell scroll Kalius tied potions of thunderwave onto the archer's arrows being able to push back and even kill some zombies. Edgar with water up to his ears kept fighting the zombies avoiding every attack and casting the mighty bells.

Rodrik decided to target the leader Destino Ficanoite calling a cloud of thunder above him and striking him with lightning. Destino did not like this and began targeting Rodrik. While Baltus held the soldiers in the bottom side of the formation stopping the zombies from getting to the center, Kalius Edgar and Kichiro held the river, however, the topside was starting to fall. Rushing to it and tanking two strikes from Destino on the way Rodrik rallied the soldiers to reform the line and protect the center.

Kichiro to slow the zombie advancement created an ice block and after telling Rodrik to “Hold things” promptly jumped onto it and started beating zombies with his hooves. The zombies coming from the river were too many for Kalius and the others to hold however and they began to arrive at the margin, in an attempt to stop their advancement Rodrik summoned tentacles to hold some of the zombies and joined the soldiers in forming a new line to protect the margin.

Destino decided then to get serious and instead of targeting Rodrik once again blew up a rock in the river near Kalius that had been slaying the zombies attempting to cross. The explosion killed the zombies but also knocked out Kalius who was blown to the margin unconscious. He was quickly revived by Gwin ~~who breastfed him~~ gave him a healing potion. Rodrik’s cloud kept hitting Destino who attempted to run away from it however the cloud followed, probably tired of being hit by lighting destino picked up a stone and threw it at the line of soldiers Rodrik was in shattering his shield and hurting him badly. Badly hurt from the explosion Rodrik got up and shouted for the line to be reformed and the fire that had been started by it to be extinguished. Gathering his strength he aimed his spear at Destino.

“Feel the power of Soten!” Rodrik shouted as he cast eldritch blast. All Destino could say was “Fell the power of wh…” before his head was blown from his shoulders.

However, before they could breathe a soldier shouted “More zombies from the back” as another horde of zombies started coming from the flanks. Now surrounded by the zombie horde and with the Ladian archers all out of arrows it was time for a retreat.  Kichiro ordered everyone to cross the river and blast through the zombie's frontline, Rodrik decided to cover the archer's retreat and help Baltus who had been contending with three zombies closer to the flank.

The horde of flanking zombies was accompanied by a man in a staff, seeing this man Baltus immediately began targeting him calling the gods fury upon the man again and again while the rest of the army dealt with the remaining frontline zombies and retreated across the river. After Baltus repeated strikes the hooded man fell, the zombies who up until that point had been a coordinated mass began dispersing making it easy for the army to evade and retreat.

With the fight over Rodrik gazed upon the death it had caused; the River ran red with blood while the corpses drifted downstream getting caught in the rocks and among themselves forming a dam of dead men and zombies. This had been his first ever real battle never had he seen such death… The Vulcan team decided to rest for the night and deal with the zombies in the morning, as the camp was being set Rodrik took this time to talk to Kichiro. Going up to the old horseman Rodrik apologized for calling the shots despite being a new member, Kichiro, however, reassured Rodrik that he did the right thing, and many lives were saved because of him, this made Rodrik extremely happy, maybe he did have what it takes to be king one day.

The Vulcan team also found a necromancy necklace that has given to Edgar.

After the fight with the zombie horde, the Vulcan team got some much-needed rest, before setting out the next day. Their objective was the Conseti bridge, which according to some intel had been taken by enemy forces.

However during the night, Gwin stormed the Vulcan Team tent to announce that Blitzhard had passed out, this meant that the sailor girls pool had been compromised and almost constantly Consenti had been infiltrated. This urged the Vulcan team to move faster towards their goal.

After some time of travel with no incidents, the Vulcan team finally arrived at the Cosenti Bridge. The gate to the bridge was shut, and so the Team decided to send out Rodrik as a Crença agent to get them to open the gates so the army could storm in. While Rodrik advanced on the gate Baltus went to scout under and around the bridge.

As Rodrik approached the gate a Guard immediately told him to stop and identify himself, to which Rodrik replied he was an agent sent by Crença to fortify the bridge garrison. The guards did not seem convinced and one of the asked Rodrik:

*“Who the fuck are you?”*

*To which Rodrik responded:*

*“And who the fuck are you?”*

*To which the guard  retorted:*

*“No, who the fuck are you.”*

*To which Rodrik answered:*

*“No who the fuck are you!”*

This developed in such a way that Edgar had to intervene by disguising himself as Crença and flinging his/her? tits around until the guards gave in and opened the gates. Then the carriages and the soldiers stormed in beginning a battle on the bridge.

Meanwhile, Baltus who was scouting found multiple harpies ~~vibing~~ sleeping under the bridge. He also was able to infiltrate one of the towers and lock the guards outside of it making it so that even if the guard attempted to close the gate half of it would remain open allowing the army to pass through.

As the carriages began to storm through the soldiers guarding the bridge shot arrows at the horses, eventually killing one of them as he passed through the gate. This caused the other carriage to crash into the first one flipping it and tossing all its occupants on the floor, including Kichiro and Blitzhard’s unconscious body. The harpies asleep under the bridge also wakened and joined the fight. The fight was fierce with some soldiers perishing and Kichiro charging face-first into the enemy despite Rodrick’s advice not to… During the fight, Rodrik entered one of the guard towers slaughtering everyone inside including the guard whom with he had the previous “ Who the fuck are you?” altercation.

The fight was suddenly spotted however with the arrival of more harpies led by Black a slightly more intelligent harpy who carried a letter from Crença. The letter read:

*“Dear Vulcan Team: I’ve gained access to the highest SGE info pool and with that, a new light has shined upon your situation and my situation as well.*

*I don’t want to be involved in this Tops + alien battle royale bizniz so here’s the thing. We don’t have to clash.*

*Let me remain hidden in Consenti. Tell the Lads I’m dead!! I'll stay here for a few months and then il take my hordes and followers back to hell. I have all the pieces I just need time…*

*OwO*

*I'm sowy for kiwing ur fwend it wasn’t me it was zombie horde uwu! Truce?*

*Tell the idiot harpy in front of you what you think about this truce. She has a follow-up based on your answer!”*

Conflicted with what they should do and with Gwen right next to them the Vulcan Team froze without a clear direction. They began to think about what to do and even lied to Gwin stating that Crença was dead. They tried to argue with black that they should be able to visit Conseti to see if the people there were safe in response to this, she gave them another letter.

*“I’m gonna level with you guys here. If you come to Consenti. I know about Tops and will steal her if you come and try to find me. I know people in Lad town >.<. I also know everything about you guys. U became a stupid horse I saw lots of undoctored reports about you and about what’s happening inside the continent right now. I can assure you there are at least 4 Tops at stake in there. I'll also say Kalius should get his anti-social behavior checked!!!*

*I’ve gained access to all reports about you. The next time we meet il make sure to show you how I run things.”*

Faced with this the Vulcan Team pondered further while trying to avoid Gwin's suspicion who was standing right next to them, this was until Rodrik epically fumbled and said Crença’s name aloud for Gwin to hear. Which aroused her suspicion about the case. The Vulcan Team attempted to cover up the mistake and decided to send Crença a proposition of allowing them to visit Consenti only to check if the city had not been overrun by zombies. Black decided to take this proposition back to Crença and come back with an answer meanwhile the Vulcan Team and the army should stay in the bridge, she should come back within two days.

With the truce called the fight at the bridge came to a stop and the cleanup began as the fight had left some dead and two carriages destroyed. Seeing that two of the horses had died Edgar decided to try and resurrect them. Using his expert necromancy knowledge and with the help of Kalius, Edgar proceeded with his ritual being able to revive the two horses. However, necromancy was illegal which led to many of the guards questioning what was Edgar doing to which he replied “Professional business.” After the revival of the horses, these looked terrible sick and as such Edgar decided to “ Quarantine” them while telling the guards they had the “horse flu” which has highly contagious.  Edgar attempted to show his work to Kichirô however the horses collapsed before he could have his magic has not strong enough to hold them alive.

The Vulcan Team decided then to have a tactical meeting to decide their next step. As they were walking back to their tent two guards approached Edgar, asking if he could turn back into Crença for some money. Such an unhonorable request from a lower-ranking officer thoroughly annoyed Rodrik who was already mad at himself due to killing men at the bridge and fumbling during the negotiations. The power he wielded now was great but he had let it come to his head killing 4 men who here simply mind-controlled, men who could have been allies if not for the influence of the Demon Crença.

Rodrik later apologized to Kichiro for his mistakes, Kichiro comforted him and assured him we all make mistakes and it has only his duty to keep trying to be better.

Now back ate their tent the Vulcan Team, was about to discuss their plan when Blitzhard woke up. She explained to the Vulcan Team that her passing out has a defense mechanism for unauthorized access to the sailor Girs pool. This meant that the Sailor Girls had been infiltrated and thus Blitzhard’s reports could be read by Crença. Deciding not to waste any more time the Vulcan Team quickly devised a plan.

The plan has simple, they would sneak out of the camp and cross the river, the army would stay and cover for them for the two days in order not to arouse suspicion. Then they would arrive in Consenti and look for Crença before she could learn they were looking for her.  However, the plan stood on a dilemma, for it to work Blitzhard would have to lie on her reports as Crença had access to them. She had to think that they were still at the bridge. This has a very big deal has lying in the reports has strictly forbidden even punished by death. Blitzhard was reluctant to do so but agreed to do it under the condition they would protect her when the time came. Rodrik reassured her they would, promising to give his life for hers if it came down to it. They set out that same night, crossing the river with the help of ropes and beginning their frantic journey towards Conseti. In order to arrive within two days, they could not rest traveling day and night as fast as they could.

As the Vulcan Team rushed to Consenti they were stopped in the way by shadow beasts. Used to facing this kind of enemy the Vulcan team lost no time in beginning to slaughter them. However, during the fight, a mysterious figure jumped in shooting one of the bigger shadow beasts and dealing damage to Kichirô in the process. The figure revealed itself to be Null-the 10th finger, one of the warriors of the sailor girl’s organization. Faced with a representative of the sailor girls the Vulcan Team thought their plan had failed if she could access the pool, she would learn that Blitzhard lied and then communicate that to Conseti ending the mission and possibly killing them all. The Vulcan Team was prepared to fight Null if that meant protecting the mission, however, as Null herself stated she had no access to the pool and was merely sent as reinforcements to the bridge. After some convincing that  Blitzhard had not betrayed them, she agreed to keep on her mission and head for the bridge, the case of Blitzhard lying would be something to be dealt with later.

After one day of non-stop journey, the Vulcan Team finally arrived at Consenti. A large and beautiful city, whose main palace was composed of towers that spiraled into the sky. According to Blitzhard, that palace was the sailor girl’s HQ and where the pool was located. Before storming in Consenti the Team decided to proceed with an investigation as not to go in completely blind. First Kichirô divined Crença’s location learning that she was underground besides that other information could be divined. Then Edgar, using disguise self and minor illusion changed his appearance and Lad Permit to enter Conseti, followed by Kalius also using disguise self and Rodrik, who being a new member did not need to conceal his appearance.  However, none of the two had the magic necessary to change their names in the Lad Permit as such Rodrik had to resort to charm person to make friends with the guards and negotiate their way in.

Once inside Edgar directed itself onto the nearest tavern here he tried to get some information from the barkeep by a mix of double-meaning words and winking. This of course failed and Edgar asked for a salad instead and sat in a corner eating.

When Kalius and Rodrik finally entered the City they decided to head for the tavern first as it would be the place where they could most likely get information. Upon entering they saw Edgar sitting in the corner eating and decided to ignore him to keep cover. Rodrik questioned the barkeep, by asking some questions about the city's ruling and recent problems as well as the sightings of Crença. This, unfortunately, cost him all the 4 gold pieces he had in his possession, and he shamefully had to ask Kalius for a loan.  Meanwhile, Edgar looked at them confused as to why they would pay so much money for a salad. After questioning the barkeep Rodrik and Kalius learned that the sailor girls here are led by the six eyes who serve the LADS directly and have been the same for a long time. If the pool had failed, then one of them maybe was the traitor as only they have access. Crença had also been sighted in Conseti although sparsely and without much clue as to her location.

With this new information, Kalius and Rodrik left the tavern without eating a salad much to the shock of Edgar.

After leaving the tavern Rodrik noticed he had no money left, Kalius promptly gave him 100 gold pieces, Rodrik refuse the money as he had not evens seen that amount of money together before taking instead 10 gold pieces and promising to pay Kalius back. The pair then decided to further investigate the city collecting some intel on where the eye’s manor and the Sailor Girls HQ, both of which were heavily guarded. Edgar after eating his salad also attempted to collect some intelligence by going to the eye’s manor and asking to speak with Palleturquoise. The guards assumed he was in love with her and mocked him relentlessly calling more and more guards to gawk at the simp at their door.

Returning to camp the Vulcan Team started a meeting on how to proceed next or tried to as Edgar crouched in the corner angry and sad about being garbage at investigating and not getting any worthwhile information after a whole day of walking around. On top of all that he was called a simp by the guards.

Rodrik tried to comfort him saying we all get fail and get embarrassed sometimes. He then told the story of when he entered a tournament back in Sotenheim and got knocked out with a single punch on his first bout and consequently was the village joke for two years. This did not appease Edgar who got more sad thinking he would be the Conseti joke for two years.

After Edgar calmed down the Vulcan team began to share the intel they had collected and discuss ideas about what to do next. Blitzhard reminded them that they were the Vulcan team and if they wished they could order the sailor girls into an emergency meeting to discover the traitor. The team eventually decided this to be the best course of action as the lead on Crença’s whereabouts were slim at best, with their only lead being that she was hiding underground. With the plan set, the Vulcan team stormed Consenti and beelined for the eyes manor, and demanded a meeting. Despite being reluctant the guards could not deny the Vulcan team and called Palleturquoise, one of the eyes. She was surprised to see the Vulcan Team at her doorstep as the records claimed they were still at the bridge, looking at Blitzhard she realized what had happened and called a traitor. Rodrik quickly intervened saying that she followed their orders, and no punishment should come to her. Palleturquoise dismissed this saying they would deal with her later.

The Vulcan team then told her about the possible traitor and the threat Crença posed to which she replied they already knew about this and had already identified the traitor. The meeting to decide their punishment would occur the following morning and the Vulcan Team should wait. However, waiting was not an option and they demanded the meeting to be held immediately. Although reluctant Palleturquoise accepted the request and began calling the meeting. The Vulcan Team was directed to the eyes tower where the meeting would be held, the tower was tall with hundreds of steps required to reach the top. The eyes meeting room was located at the very top and it was protected by a magical door. The room was circular and three circles were evenly spread at the center, these circles were where the eyes pairs stood during their meetings. In the center of these circles, there was an altar, and above that altar a candle. On the opposite side of the room, another door stood covered in symbols, this door was the one that led to the sailor girls' main pool the one that had been breached by Crença.

The 19th emergency meeting of the eyes was called under the pretext that Hibiscus, Palleturquoise’s pair had died, in order not to alert the suspect Smoke. The meeting was attended not only by the eyes and the Vulcan team but also by some of the fingers, the warrior branch of the sailor girls. After all the eyes were assembled, Hibiscus walked shocking Smoke who thought the meeting was called because of Hibiscus's death, Palleturquoise responded to Smoke’s shock with:

*“Of course, Hisbiscus is not dead we have revivify, are you a retard?”*

The meeting then began, a book was summoned in the middle altar who would record everything that was being said, and the candle at the top was ignited. The candle was imbued with the spell “Fire Truth” and would flicker every time a lie was told guaranteeing the truth in every statement.

The meeting followed the structure of a trial with the Vulcan team and the eyes posing questions and arguments to further their hypothesis. Most of the eyes seem convinced that Smoke was to blame and demanded her to be executed on the spot. However, the Vulcan team felt like there was something more to it and wished to get to the bottom of the matter.

The trial dragged on, and new information came to light, apparently under the threat of mind control a sailor girl will take her own life, meaning that if someone had betrayed them and lived it was not mind control. Also, Smoke had been with Crença in the tower the night the sailor girls pool had been breached she however was unconscious and when asked to lift her sleeve she showed a huge cut on her arm. This meant that someone tried to mind control Smoke and she tried to end her own life before being knocked out.

During the trial, however, Kalius noticed Hibiscus wasn’t speaking and that Palleturquoise was doing all the talking, so he asked for Hibiscus's confirmation on Palleturquoise’s affirmations. Hibiscus however remained silent. What followed next was a series of revelations that would prove so shocking that they would rock the foundations of the sailor girls.

The events that truly transpired were as follows, Hibiscus had helped Crença of his own free will. Together they abducted Smoke and opened the door to the sailor girls' main pool and performed the ritual of turning Crença technically into a sailor girl giving her access to all the pools and all the information. And the reason why Hibiscus had done all of this? Because he was in love! Yes, one of the Sailor girl's eyes was actually a man and had fallen in love with the enemy.

Upon this revelation Rodrik was overcome with rage, how could a leader betray his people like that, how could someone be so unhonorable to the point of allowing an entire city to be destroyed for his own selfish desires. Although he had not seen RiverSprings, Rodrik heard tales about it and the Vulcan team themselves told him about the massacre. Rodrik tried to calm himself but the thought of a leader turning his back on the ones who trusted him boiled his blood making his tattoos glow bright red.

But now that the traitor had been revealed, some pieces fell in place such as one of the fingers covering for him which turned out to be Hibiscus's sister. As the things heated and the Vulcan Team prepared for the inevitable battle that would follow a window above them shattered, above the fighting with one of the fingers was Crença. With their target in reach, the Vulcan Team engaged in battle.

As the battle began all the eyes collapsed, the Vulcan team later discovered this to be due to someone being inside the pool trying to get information.

The battle raged with three of the fingers turning coat and fighting the Vulcan team alongside Crença. During the fight, Kichirô focused on getting the eyes to safety, while Baltus fought one of the fingers, and Edgar, Rodrik, and Kalius ganged up on Crença. Edgar, who was trying to heal his friends quickly got the attention of Crença who charged her black hand against him. Rodrik knew Edgar was more important than him, Edgar could heal Rodrik but Rodrik couldn’t heal Edgar. Gathering his courage, he threw Edgar out of the way standing in front of Crença and tanking the black hand being knocked unconscious in the process. As he predicted Edgar quickly healed him back and Rodrik was able to get back into the fight with only minor injuries. As the damage dealt against Crença piled up she began to grow annoyed at the Vulcan Team’s efforts unleashing a powerful spell that put Kalius in a comatose-like state, with him only being able to drool over Crença’s massive tiddies. The fingers and Baltus also had a difficult fight with one of the fingers being constantly healed by the other, she even fireballed centered on herself only to be healed right back. Kichirô had a chance to down her however he was too busy dragging Hibiscus to safety in order to do so.  On the other side in the fight with Crença things were looking dire for the Vulcan team, Kalius was out of the fight and all of them were running out of resources. As things looked the most desperate as his team needed him the most, Rodrik faltered and fell under Crença´s spell unable to move to speak or even thinking freely Rodrik was reduced to a gawking mess. However, help seemed to arrive as Null the 10th finger stormed the tower with a bow in hand and missed every single shot she fired, despite her previous show of power when she first met the Vulcan team, she was able to contribute absolute zero to the fight at hand.

Crença now badly hurt by the Vulcan team attempted to escape by turning herself into a bat. However, Kalius who finally snapped out of the spell pulled out the barrels of explosives which Edgar threw and Kalius ignited causing an explosion that caught Crença. However, she survived and attempted to flee through the window she had broken on her entrance. Finding the last of his strength Edgar unleashed a final spell the spell hit true and Crença fell… out of the window of the tower splattering into the floor beneath.

The Vulcan Team ran through the stairs to see if they had really killed Crença. They found her body splattered on the floor surrounded by two guards. The emotions of the moment then began to flow as multiple members of the Vulcan team began to cry, they had finally defeated Crença and avenged Dundee. Edgar raised his hammer bringing it down on Crença’s head while crying “Dundee!”

Dundee, wherever he may be, was finally avenged and could rest in peace for eternity knowing his friends had conquered their foe and his death had meant something.

But the day was not over for the Vulcan Team as they climbed the tower once again to check on the eyes who had passed out during the fight. Upon reaching the top of the tower small earthquakes began to be felt and a strange black smoke leaked from the door to the pools, the Vulcan Team inquired the eyes about the strange events but they had no answer. Deciding to investigate the Team asked the eyes to open the door. Behind the door the room was heavily obscured by thick black smoke, Rodrik immediately eldritch blasted the room to see if any hostiles were found inside but the spells were merely consumed by the fog.

Despite the multiple and very clear warnings by the eyes Kalius and Rodrik decided to enter the room using Rodrik’s spear as a walking stick to prevent from falling into anything. The investigation however proved fruitless as nothing was found inside the room. After leaving the room Rodrik asked about the pools to which the eyes responded that they served as a means to infuse the sailor girls with magic. Rodrik was shocked by this information and asked if they really could make regular people use magic using the pools. Palleturquoise answered that yes, they could, but she didn’t know if it would be useful for him as the magic given by the pools was not suited for combat. Edgar asked Rodrik why did he want to be infused with magic if he had magic already, Rodrik responded that “he didn’t like where it came from.”. Edgar then asked multiple times if it came from a demon, questions these that Rodrik choose not to answer.

Thinking the matter of Crença was settled the Vulcan Team wished to leave but one thing remained to be settled, Blitzhard’s trial. As it stood Blitzhard was guilty of treason for lying in the reports and faced the death penalty. Faithful to their oath the Vulcan Team defended Blitzhard, stating that she only did that under their command and towards the greater good and therefore should not face charges, however when put to a trial most of the eyes voted for Blitzhard’s execution. The Vulcan Team could not accept this and although tired battered and bruised they prepared for a fight. They did not want to fight the eyes and as such, they concentrated on fleeing with Kalius casting fog cloud and the rest of the Team making a run for it while trying to protect Blitzhard. However, Palleturquoise who agreed with the Vulcan Team that Blitzhard should be spared began fireballing her fellow eyes from the inside of the fog cloud. Kichirô also ran to the door but one of the eyes blocked it causing a fight that revolved around the opening and closing the door. Rodrik tried to charge through knocking down two of the eyes but was eventually stopped by Null the 10th finger.

Then from the room, a woman emerged, she spoke into all their heads making the fight stop and compelling them all to stand before her. This woman was Alcana the founder of the sailor girls. She had manifested before them causing herself immense pain to alter the sailor girl's constitution and instruct the eyes on how to proceed about Blitzhard and Hibiscus. First, she decided to forgive Hibiscus as she could see that although he loved Crença he never stopped loving the Lads, and now that she was gone his love for the Lads was the strongest in his heart. Rodrik tried to speak up against this, as to how could they be sure another love would not appear to replace that of the Lads once again and that a crime as treason should not be forgiven. But Alcana ~~discord muted him~~ silenced him ~~because this was a cutscene~~ as she did not care for his opinions and thus ~~leaving me sad to miss a good Rp opportunity~~ Rodrik angry. Although she decided to spare Hibiscus Alcana demoted both him and Palleturquoise from eyes giving their place to Blitzhard and her pair. Palleturquoise would from then on be assigned to the Vulcan Team instead. As a new rule, Alcana implemented that eight eyes should exist instead of six, promoting two more sailor girls to eyes.

Alcana then left leaving the Vulcan Team suffering from long-term madness. The sailor girls accommodated the Vulcan Team while they recuperated from the madness.

When they finally recovered the Team Visited the eyes tower one last time before departing, here Rodrik made the brilliant suggestion of arranging the new circles in a square. Before departing the eyes presented the Vulcan Team with a new astonishing revelation, another Tops! This one dressed in shades of blue. She had been arrested in Conseti for fabricating potions that would make you move and think twice as fast. The same potions the Vulcan Team had confiscated at the very beginning of their careers. When questioning her the Vulcan Team learned that she was over 20 years old and had been born in another location and not the island in dictating the existence of multiple beacons and Tops older than they expected.

Now accompanied by their new assigned sailor girl Palleturquoise the Vulcan Team returned to the bridge to meet with the army once again. There they found the bridge to be manned by the Ladian forces has a fight broke out that ended in the Ladian army’s victory.

While they crossed the bridge a familiar figure showed up from the skies. Black, the harpy that had come to deliver Crença´s message came down to talk to the Vulcan Team. She informed them that she was no longer interested in helping Crença, she wanted to learn how to read and earn some money. For her to do so she would infiltrate the remainder of Crenças minions who were regrouping in a cave somewhere, she would then come back and sell that information to the Lads. Before she could go she had to do something first and handed the Vulcan team a harpy baby. It was Black’s daughter who was half human half demon, her dad was dead and Black couldn’t take her with her so she decided to leave it to the care of the Vulcan team. The name of the baby was Ollie Hellspawn and despite the Vulcan team’s worries about handling a baby Black assured them that they should just “feed her meat three times a day and she would be fine”.

With a baby in their care, the Vulcan Team departed once again to Ladtown.

On the way they were once again faced with the Shadow beasts, however, this time their leader was different, it spoke and had a clear target in the Vulcan team. This was no random attack. After the foes were slain Rodrik attempted to interrogate the sentient shadow beast, however all he could get out of it before it disappeared was that it was sent by “Father” to eliminate the Vulcan Team.

### The Golden Fist Tournament Arc

The Vulcan Team arrived in Ladtown victorious and proud. The capital was filled with cheers and screams however they were not for them. Standing on a wooden stage a bard loudly announced the beginning of the first edition of the Golden Fist Tournament. The tournament was the first-ever organized by the Lads and the prize pool would be enormous promising to attract all kinds of powerful fighters. After the bard spoke Laedo Lolar himself came upon the stage to announce some of the competitors. Rodrik’s heart burned with joy when hearing the announcement. Back in Sotenheim tournaments usually were where the future kings and queens began their careers and were an important part of their culture and entertainment. He too wished to participate and test his newfound powers.

When Laedo left a sailor girl came to the stage announcing that due to the Vulcan Team’s resounding success a new team had been created with the same purpose “ Team Magma” and as an exhibition match for the tournament the Vulcan Team and Magma Team would fight each other. This left a bit of a sour taste in the Vulcan teams’ mouth as they just seemed like a knock-off of themselves.

As the announcements ended the public began to disperse, some noticed the Vulcan Team and cheered them on but most left to their respective duties.  Tired and in need of rest the Vulcan Team also made their way home. It was the first time Rodrik was seeing the Vulcan Team house, but before they could get to it Niggo Jacha jumped out of a bush. The remaining members of the Vulcan team were already used to dealing with such a character and quickly dispatched him as the debt was paid and they wanted no more dealing with him. Rodrik was then told the whole story surrounding Kalius's death.

Finally arriving home, the Vulcan Team noticed that there was another house exactly just like their own right across the street. This fuelled their idea that the Magma Team was just a knock-off of themselves.

Shortly after arriving and showing Rodrik to his new room, the Vulcan Team was visited by Euler Lolar, who congratulated them on another successful mission. She also brought their payment a whopping 4000 gold pieces for each member of the team. Rodrik was astonished at the amount of money he received.

Euler proceeded to tell the Vulcan team the rules of the tournament and about their exhibition match with Team Magma. The rules were a target for debate among the Vulcan team as they allowed underhanded tactics bribes and a lot more. The prizes were also enormous. Furthermore, Euler brought them ELO BOOST potions. These potions were something the Vulcan team had encountered multiple times in their journeys. Not only the blue Tops they now protected was involved in their production but they also had encountered multiple people selling them in the streets. Although the Vulcan Team first thought the ELO BOOST was a drug it was now legal and sanctioned by the ladian empire, booming a new business in Ladtown.

The exhibition match against Team Magma would consist of 1v1 fights until only one team remained. She also asked who of the Vulcan Team would like to participate in the tournament, with everyone except Kichirô wanting in.

The Vulcan Team proceeded to each spend their hard-earned money. Rodrik bought a suit of magical Armor, to which he later bonded with in his room, and a small knife with Ollie’s name on it. Kalius bought some scrolls and complained to the mage tower workers that his scroll had sharted after many guarantees that it wouldn’t. This caused quite a ruckus in the mage tower as they ran around gathering a lot of scrolls and trying to silence Kalius about the sharting.  Eventually, Kalius got a sweet deal out of the mage tower with discounts in the next 3 scrolls bought.

Back at the Vulcan team house Rodrik tried to give Ollie his present but was denied by Edgar who insisted that it was “too dangerous for a baby”.

The day of the match against Team Magma arrived, in the morning Euler showed up at the Vulcan team house as usual. She told them to win and that if they won there would be a good prize for them, something that would be “useful in the future”. The Vulcan Team made their way to the arena and began preparing for the fight. The first one to fight was Baltus.

Baltus faced a ragged-looking farmer who kept taking axes out of his pocket and throwing them, missing most. Baltus took a careful approach, by circling his opponent to get close and then hammering the shit out of him.

With one fight won the Vulcan Team was confident for the next one. Up next was Rodrik, conjuring his new suit of armor Rodrik walked into the arena. Both he and his adversary drank an ELO BOOST potion, and the match began. Rodrik’s adversary launched attack after attack, but Rodrik’s armor was thick and repelled every single one. The match ended with another victory for the Vulcan Team.

The third bout saw Edgar walk into the arena to face another raven yourdle just like him. As soon as the match began the raven yourdle pulled a fireball scroll, dropped it, picked it up, and fireballed Edgar. Edgar quickly rushed the raven yourdle, who seeing Edgar close to her choose to fireball herself along with Edgar. When the smoke cleared Edgar was standing and the raven yourdle laid unconscious on the ground. Mounting another victory for the Vulcan team.

Kichiro fought next against a man wearing a bearskin as a cape. The man immediately rushed Kichirô despite the spells he threw at him. Unfortunately once the distance was closed Kichirôs spells proved inferior to his adversary's weapons and after a close fight, Kichirô lost.

With now a loss on their record, The Vulcan team sent Kalius to fight the Magma team's last member. This last member immediately drank 8 ELOBOOST potions, while Kalius only drank one. This difference in ELO BOOSTS (let’s call it ELO diff) was enough for Kalius's adversary to get 7 attacks in and down Kalius before he could do his signal double fireball.

Two losses were already too much for Rodrik and he began feeling nervous at the thought of his team being defeated. Deciding not to cower Rodrik set forward as the next opponent of the man who downed Kichirô.

Rodrik readied his spear and walked into the arena. The bear-man charged Rodrik with his blows striking true and passing through Rodrik’s armor. As the attacks connected and Rodrik felt the sword cut into his skin he also felt the debilitating effects of poison. Poisoned and on the brink of passing out Rodrik almost fell, but he could not fail his team, and pushing past the effects of the poison Rodrik launched one last attack finally downing his opponent.

After the fight, Rodrik promptly vomited out of nerves.

One member of the Magma Team remained and to face him the Vulcan Team sent Edgar. Rodrik was not confident in the win and began drinking health potions to prepare himself to fight next. However, in a twisting sequence of events and several well-placed guiding bolts, Edgar emerged victorious and secured the win for the Vulcan Team.

The Vulcan team victory™ greatly upset Wuscas Muscas who couldn’t stop crying bullshit although his team had lost fair and square.

Both teams walked into the arena after the fight for the Vulcan team’s victory announcement. Euler happily proclaimed the Vulcan Team the victor. Rodrik raised his spear and shouted, “We are the Vulcan Team, we are the shield that protects you”.

The winning prize for the exhibition fight was nothing less than claims to lands in the Aquitar tribes, this included Redia, Bludia, and Yellodia. With Rodrik gaining claims to Yellodia.

That same day Euler also stopped by the Vulcan team house to congratulate them on their victory.

Being the important members, they were the Vulcan team automatically passed the first rounds of the tournament, as such they decided to watch them to get a better understanding of how the tournament would work. In the very first round of the tournament, both opponents took their 5 minutes of prep time to drink almost 30 ELO BOOST. By the end, they were barely able to stand due to uncontrollable shaking. The match began and ended in the same second with both opponents charging at each other and being completely destroyed by the force of impact. The tournament had to be halted for 30 minutes so the arena could be cleaned. The second match was a mirror of the first ending with both opponents dead the arena filled with blood. After that, all tournament matches were canceled for the day. The following day a new rule was announced, a limit of five to the ELO BOOSTS that could be taken before every match.

With this new rule, the matches seemed to progress smoothly, and not before long it was the Vulcan Teams' turn to jump into action. The Vulcan Team decided to make a team of 3, Edgar, Kalius, and Rodrik would fight together while Baltus would go in alone.

Kalius, Edgar, and Rodrik fought 3 middle-aged men who used their 5 minutes of prep time to advertise their brand of rice. After the advertisement, the match began and they were immediately obliterated by Kalius 4 fireballs.

Baltus fought too that day winning his match with some good old-fashioned hammering. The Vulcan team moved onto round 2.

That night while they rested, Stromboli woke them up to an intruder in the house. The Vulcan team quickly rose to their feet and exited their rooms. On the floor of their living room, there was a box addressed to them. No magic seemed to come out of it, and so, carefully Rodrik opened the box. Inside they found the decapitated head of a woman. Although Rodrik did not know who she was the rest of the Vulcan Team quickly recognized the woman as Stratosphere one of the members of infinite’s team. With the head came a note, telling the Vulcan team to drop out of the golden fist tournament.

With a threat to their safety and the safety of those, they protected exposed the Vulcan Team decided to track down the one who sent the head. Using Kichirô’s divination they were able to track the package back to a street near the arena, then using Rodrik’s ability to sense spell usage to track down the specific house.

Using their given authority the Vulcan team knocked on the door and demanded to investigate inside, when the door opened they were immediately attacked by none other than discombobulate the only alien to escape the attack on Protagonia.  Despite being caught by surprise, Kalius was quick on his feet and dripped fear gas onto Discombobulate rendering him unable to move to attack Kalius and distracted enough to miss his attacks. With the Knowledge of his thunder damage weakness, The Vulcan team quickly dealt with the threat.

Discombobulate was then restrained and interrogated using Kalius truth serum.  With this, they discovered that Discombobulate was working alone since they had killed most of the others, as far as he knew Infinite and geopolitical were alive and he was trying to get the Vulcan Team to drop out since he had interests in other people winning. After some intense questioning Discombobulate started trying to fight against his restraints and was knocked out by Kalius and Rodrik. The house investigation led to nothing only to three graves in the back probably from the people who live there previously and were killed by Discombobulate.

Unanimously the Vulcan Team decide he was too dangerous to be kept alive and Baltus killed him.

The information collected was relayed to the Lads via Palleturquoise but not much could be done besides.

The next day round two of the golden fits tournament would take place. As there were no teams of 3 to fight the Vulcan Team, Rodrik and Baltus would fight alone while Edgar and Kalius would fight a team of 2.

As they arrived at the arena they quickly noticed something was different. There was a river running through the middle of it and two ballistae had been placed on one side. Baltus match would be against Lady Safari S.

The match began with Lady safari reading the ballistae and firing at Baltus, who tried to destroy them with Guiding Bolt. This prove not to be enough and despite a valiant effort, Baltus fell to the Ballistae shot. A very unhonourable way to win a fight in Rodrik’s opinion.

The Second match pitched Rodrik against Elise Rainiac the daughter of one of the Lads Koltar Rainiac. This left Rodrik feeling nervous, what if he hurt the daughter of one of the leaders of the country who was also his boss. Despite this Rodrik walked into the arena with the intent to win. The fight did not last long and Rodrik’s cloud and Eldritch blast were enough to end the fight soon and without trouble.

Edgar and Kalius fought as a duo against Sanquinolancy and Deturpate (correct the names), two strong adversaries who tanked Kalius's classic fireballs. Edgar fought as frontline and stopped Sanquinolancy from getting to Kalius, this, unfortunately, cost him his place in the tournament as he fell to Sanquinolancy shadow baled. Kalius however was able to finish Detraupate and secured his place in the next round.

In the next round of the tournament, only Kalius and Rodrik were left and composed a team of 2. They faced two orcs, one famed for killing 20 adventures and the other for being the strongest of his tribe.

In the 5 minutes of prep time, one of the Orcs summoned 3 water elementals and gave a fireball scroll to the other. The second Orc however seemed too dumb to realize how to use it.

The fight opened with Rodrik attacking the orc who summoned the elementals in hopes of turning them against him, Kalius followed up on the attacks with his fireballs.  The plan succeeded and the elementals went rogue. But both orcs tanked the attacks and charged at Rodrik and Kalius. Rodrik acting as a front line took attacks from both orcs as well as one elemental.  While Kalius dealt significant damage from the backlines. The smart orc seeing Kalius as a treat tried to fireball him but was counter-spelled by Rodrik. Focusing all their attacks on a singular orc Rodrik and Kalius were able to down him but not before Rodrik himself went down after tanking all the damage.

Kalius was now the only one left in the tournament.

Later that day the Vulcan Team was visited by Wuscas Muscas, which with a smug face proclaimed that they might have beaten his team but now he still had a member on the tournament while they had none. First, this was factually incorrect as Kalius was still in the tournament and secondly, nothing was proven as both teams had a member in that could be eliminated at any moment. Wuscas Muscas dismissed these claims saying that he had beaten Kalius once and would beat him again.

The next day the matches were announced and by the stroke of fate Kalius would face against the same man who beat him in the exhibition match, the same man Wuscas Muscas came to brag about.  Euler told them that she was already pushing for the dissolvement of the Magma team and if Kalius won this round then that would be assured. With new motivation, Kalius walked onto the arena.

This time there would be no ELO diff as Kalius took the maximum allowed number of potions. The fight started much like the last one with Kalius being charged by his enemy, but this time Kalisu was prepared and used fear gas. The effect worked and unable to move any closer to Kalius the fight ended with the last of the Magma team members defeated. The Vulcan Team was victorious once again.

Despite competing in the tournament, the Vulcan team still had a job to do, and the Lads had a new mission for them, to investigate a suspicious ELOBOOST production as well as to investigate the production of fireball scrolls in Solidworks corp. Tower.

Apparently, some people had already been sent to investigate the production of ELOBOOSTS but they never returned, and so the responsibility fell to the Vulcan Team.

The mysterious ELOBOOST distribution site was held in a small cave not far from Lad Town. After arriving and quickly discussing a strategy, the Vulcan Team set to action with Rodrik and Kichirô going in front to try a more diplomatic approach. The cave was small filled with boxes of ELOBOOST, which were being moved by thersian workers.  The couple in charge Kalmar and Karila accepted to answer some questions, about the disappearances. However,  they did not get any answers as Kalmar and Karila denied that anyone had come by. However, there seemed to be signs of struggle in the cave with blood on the floor and some broken crates. Because the man refused to answer the questions truthfully, Rodrik asked him to come back with them to Ladtown. The man refused and attacked the Vulcan Team.

After defeating and apprehending the culprits the Vulcan Team interrogated them once more and ascertained the location of the ELOBOOST production, a mansion not far north from there. After waiting for the guards to come and secure the prisoners the Vulcan Team set out for the mansion, but not before making a quick stop at the Solidworks tower.

At first glance the tower seemed abandoned, being covered in cobwebs and moss. However, when the Vulcan Team knocked on the door a frail voice answered from the top asking for help. Breaking down the door the Vulcan team rescued an elderly wizard from the uppermost floor of the tower. The elderly wizard had been held captive in the tower for many years, even before the fall of Korunthar forced to make fireball scrolls. After leaving the tower Peter Ironman destroyed it with an extremely large fireball.

With their plans thrown off by the discovery of the wizard the Vulcan Team returned to Lad Town to accompany him, leaving the mansion for another day.

That day was the next day, as the Vulcan Team left Ladtown at dawn to investigate the mansion.

Upon arriving in the mansion and after some quick scouting from Baltus, they found that some ELOBOOST was being moved and that the mansion was heavily guarded. As per usual, the Vulcan Team devised a cunning plan, to send Kichirô as a distraction while the rest entered through the back.

While Kichirô argued with the butler, the rest of the Vulcan team tried to sneak through the kitchen door. The door was locked, Rodrik tried to use a mage hand to open it from the inside, which led to the Kitchen lady opening it thinking the guards were asking for lunch, which in turn led Rodrik to knock her out.

Meanwhile, Kiichirô was able to get an audience with the lord of the mansion none other than Tyler the 4th.

After entering through, the kitchen, the Vulcan team sneaked up onto the upper floor where they found multiple diaries documenting Tyler the 1st and other Tyler’s experiences and findings with ELOBOOST. These diaries hinted towards Tyler the 1st obtaining immortality. The Vulcan Team speculated about all the different Tyler’s being the same one that had obtained immortality. They also found a laboratory where ELOBOOSTs were being produced. Kalius noted that something was being added to them that was not on the recipe, some kind of red liquid.

While this has happening Kichirô was having some trouble with Tyler the 4th. Kichirô tried to persuade him to come to Ladtown, to help with the investigation. Tyler the 4th however was adamant about not leaving and even called his own guards on Kichirô. Palleturquoise sensing the danger called the rest of the Vulcan team which teleported next to Kichirô and began fighting off the guards. Tyler the 4th retreated onto his mansion and barricaded himself within.

The guards posed no threat to the Vulcan team, who quickly dispatched them. After breaking down the door to the mansion they faced a bigger treat, Tyler the 4th himself and Hogl Fart. Tyler the 4th had a magical jacket that protected him from fire, Hogl Fart and several other servants from the house took advantage of this by raining down fireball scrolls onto the Vulcan team. After a hard-fought battle, the Vulcan team prevailed taking down Tyler the 4th and all his servants, as he fell Tyler whispered, *“Don’t take off my jacket.”*.

As the Vulcan team restrained all the involved in the fight, Rodrik decided to take off Tyler the 4th jacket, as he feared he would use it to escape. As soon as the jacket left his skin Tyler turned into ash being disintegrated by the extreme heat the jacket released. Rodrik was shocked as he stared at the pile of ash that two seconds ago was Tyler the 4th. Rodrik had vowed not to kill unless absolutely necessary and he just killed a bound helpless man. For the following 3hours Rodrik sat on the floor unable to move groveling in his own mistake. When the guards finally arrived to take the prisoners Rodrik got up accepted his mistake and chose to move on.  After the guards carried the prisoners away the Vulcan Team began investigating the house and the surrounding areas.

They first investigated the upper floors and the lab collecting all the notes of previous Tyler’s they could to piece the timeline of Tyler’s experiments. Kalius also took some notes and samples of the ELOBOOST lab specifically of the red liquid that was being added to it. While investigating the surroundings of the house, the team found a graveyard which to Edgar’s dismay was very poorly managed. While Edgar cleaned and tried to salvage the cemetery, he discovered that the graves belonged to the previous Tyler’s. Eager to test their theory the Vulcan team asked Edgar if it would be ok to open the graves to check if the bodies were really there. Edgar did not like the idea of defiling graves but he liked the prospect of there being an immortal being even less, and so he let the Vulcan team open the graves.

They were empty. The grave for Tyler the 1st as well as Tyler the 2nd were completely empty.

Having nothing else left to investigate in the mansion the Vulcan Team returned to Ladtown to rest and discuss the evidence collected.

Back in the Vulcan team house, Kalius confined himself in his room to work on something in anticipation of his next bout in the tournament. As usual, Euler came by the house to give them payment for the missions, she also gave them the information that they should check the town's square as soon as they were available.

The Vulcan team had another visitor that day, Wuscas Muscas. Who came by the Vulcan team house to brag that despite defeating his team in the opening match they had now all lost while he still had a member running. Rodrik was quick to remind him that they still had one member running, Kalius. Wuscas Muscas replied that that would not be for long and left.

Later, Rodrik decided to investigate the town square by himself as all the other members had business to attend to.

Rodrik walked to the town square and quickly discovered what Euler wanted them to see. An elderly man ran around the fountain in the center of the square shouting about the ELOBOOSTs mind control and the Tops. Rodrik quickly approached the man and interrogated him about what was he shouting about, the man quickly responded that someone had paid him to shout out a script.  Rodrik read the script and realized that whoever did that knew way more than they should. The elderly man held no secrets and told Rodrik that J “the Exiled”, a bar owner, had both given him the scrip and paid him. After paying the man 10 Gp for his silence Rodrik made his way to the bar.

The bar had a shady appearance and Rodrik immediately suspected it to be a trap. But better to be caught only him than the entire Vulcan team, if he was caught maybe the rest could rescue him.

The bar was small and through the description Rodrik could recognize the man at the bar as J. Rodrik approached the bar and asked for a strong drink, hoping to secretly pick up any information he could. Jay, however, immediately recognized him as a member of the Vulcan team. Instead of a trap as Rodrik expected J actually wanted to draw the Vulcan Team’s attention to talk to them about the situation at hand. He expected them all to come but Rodrik alone would do.

He began monologuing about the ELOBOOSTs and how convenient it was for them to be legalized at the same time of the tournament, how the Lads were stopping ELOBOOST shipments from some places while accepting from others obviously taking measures against the non-Lad ELOBOOST brands. He talked about the armies in the south fighting the shadow beasts but also the Gilga fighting the Aquitar. Jay went on talking about how the tops were the key to unlock the endgame and that the three had to be placed in the beacon at the center of the continent to trigger it, or a white tops could be used but that one hasn’t been found yet. He compared the endgame to climbing onto the tongue of a creature, that it would decide the fate of our world as it did with others before this one. He advised that we should choose the correct side, or the world would disappear.

Rodrik could barely keep up with the information given to him, much of which he could barely understand. Now he wished he had brought everyone with him. When Jay stopped talking Rodrik stunned barely knowing what to say paid for his drink thanked Jay and left to tell the other members what he just heard.

As soon as Rodrik arrived back at the Vulcan team house he quickly assembled everyone to try and tell them what he just heard. After relaying the information as faithfully as he could the Vulcan team began discussing what they should do next. Rodrik was apprehensive about taking the tops to the beacon because he did not know if placing them inside would kill them. Blue tops who overheard the conversation refused to go to the center continent and to be placed inside the beacon. Moving without the Lads knowing was also out of the question as they always had a “recorder” with them. A sentence that Palleturquoise took very much offense to.

The discussion was leading nowhere as they had few clues and very little idea of what was going on. The time for the Kalius match was drawing near and as such the discussion was left on hold.

Right before the match, Kalius was gifted a scroll of fly by Euler.

The Vulcan team mobilized to the arena to see the match; this match was a rematch, Kalius would fight the same Magma Team members that had downed him in the exhibition match. The arena was now different with various pits around it making it difficult to move without the risk of falling.  Before Kalius, other notable matches happened that night, Safari Lady S fought the orc that downed Rodrik. She pushed him over the ledge, and he passed out.

Finally, it came Kalius's time to fight, as he entered, he showed the crowd behind him a bright red stone. Both he and his opponent drank the 5 ELOBOOSTs allowed, and Kalius used the spell scroll for fly.

The fight began, with Kalius's opponent rushing up to him Kalius responded by smashing a fear gas vial on his head. Dazed he could not land any solid hits on Kalius before he flew away and blasted him with his signature double fireball. The match was over in an instant and Kalius was victorious.

The rest of the Vulcan team cheered him on as he left the arena, while Wuscas Muscas looked on devastated. While returning home, Rodrik asked about the red stone he had flashed before the match. Kalius explained that it was something he had been working on and that it made his spells more potent if cast through it. Back at the Vulcan Team house, the Vulcan team found themselves looking at a very distraught magma team packing up their stuff and leaving. Due to losing not only the exhibition match but the tournament to the Vulcan team the Magma team had been dismantled by the LADS and therefore their members were now jobless.  The Magma team seemed to blame the Vulcan Team for their current situation, looking at them with disdain, one of the members (curiously the member that Rodrik downed during the exhibition match) threatened them. This sparked a discussion between Rodrik, Kalius, and the magma team that was only calmed by Kichirô's intervention.

Finally inside the house and ready for some rest the Vulcan Team was confronted with yet another problem. Stromboli revealed to them that she was Safari Lady S (shocking) and that due to the large amount of money she had spent to get ahead on the tournament she was now severely in debt, to solve this problem she asked the Vulcan team to beat up her debt collectors, so she didn’t have to pay. Kalius didn’t care and told her to solve the issue by herself, Rodrik said he would protect her if need be but would not pay her debt that was something she had to sort by herself. Kichirô however agreed to help and urged the Vulcan team to do the same. He argued that it was within the tournament rules and that they could do it.  Rodrik argued against it and said it would stain their honor and their image. Kichirô did not budge and kept being adamant about beating up Stromboli’s debt collectors even saying that Rodrik wouldn’t need to be involved and that they would not be able to trace back to the Vulcan Team. Shocked Rodrik asked if Kichiro planned on putting on a mask and beating people in the street at night, to which Kichirô replied that that was exactly his plan. This outraged Rodrik, who kept insisting that we would not allow that to happen. The discussion spanned for several minutes until they reached an agreement that no one would be beating up, people but Rodrik would give away from his own money to pay strombolis debt. This upset Rodrik greatly, but it was better for him than assault.

Finally, after another grueling day, the Vulcan team went to sleep.  This respite would not last for long.  During the night the Vulcan team was awakened by two blasts outside their door. As they rushed out of bed ready to fight. They found the Magma Team at their doorstep ready to fireball the house, (I cannot believe they got so tilted they griefed our base). The fight was short with Rodrik frightening most of them and then Kalius double fireballing through the window.  But the night was not over, as they looked at the center of Ladtown the Vulcan Team could see building burning. Leaving Kichirô behind to watch over the house and the Top’s the rest of the Vulcan team rushed onto the burning city.

Ladtown was in absolute chaos, buildings were burning, and people ran around screaming. As they arrived the Vulcan team was faced with tournament participants that immediately attacked them. Even the Ladtown guards seemed insane as they kicked and punched a child while another group of guards set fire to the buildings. The Vulcan team furiously cleared their way through guards and tournament participants alike, the more enemies they defeated the clearer it seemed that they were under some kind of mind control. Palleturquoise joined them after being called by Janey Set who Rodrik saved from being chased by a mind-controlled Kanye West.

Palleturquoise informed them that Ladtown was in chaos and that they should immediately hurry to the town center. The Vulcan team did as they were told downing many guards along the way and even some children (Rodrik still feels guilty about this one) as they were all mind-controlled to attacked them. As they neared the center of the town the Vulcan team was forced to face another tournament participant Deturpate. Before the Vulcan team could take him down, he used explosive boxes to inflict heavy damage, blowing up Rodrik and some buildings around him.

After clearing their way through many enemies, the Vulcan Team finally reached the Ladtown center. The guards were desperately trying to protect the Lads government building, where many civilians were hiding.  Outside stood Tyler the 3rd surrounded by the sex workers Buyabu and Sibushi as well as Transmogar, Write Quota, Takira, and Elonia. They all engaged the Vulcan team in battle. Tyler the 3rd was strong, being able to summon spikes and harden his body, and proved a difficult task for the Vulcan team. After a fierce battle Tyler, the 3rd was vanquished. While some members of the Vulcan team hurried to the Lads government building to see if everyone was unharmed. Edgar stayed behind to examine Tyler the 3rd corpse, from which he removed two large stones that were embedded in his chest.

Despite this victory, the battle was far from over inside the Lads government building some people began attacking each other as if suddenly affected by the mind control as did the two guards protecting it. Rodrik quickly took down the guards and Baltus and Kalius secured the mind-controlled people inside the building. As they were gaining control of the situation the Lads showed up. First Talio and Sanekuryous who secured Tyler the 2nd and then Koltar and Laedo who secured Tyler the 1st but not before he set fire to the Ladian docks. After a quick exchange of words, the Lads retreated to the inner chamber of the building to discuss among themselves, after a while, they called the Vulcan Team inside.

The Vulcan Team was honored to sit by the Lads as they discussed the events that had transpired. Kalius in particular could barely breathe with excitement by being in the presence of his hero and dad Koltar. Despite wanting to tell him about their relationship the flowing events did not allow for this.

The Lads quickly explained their plan to extinguish the stocks of ELOBOOST by allowing its usage in the tournament. They knew someone was planning something regarding ELOBOSTS so they decided to force their hand by having the tournament deplete the stocks. As soon as they cam out of hiding the Lads acted and captured all three Tyler’s with the help of the Vulcan Team. Rodrik tried to argue against this plan, stating that it could have been done without endangering the citizens, but he was quickly shut down by the Vulcan Team and the Lads. As they discussed further plans Palleturquoise warned them that something off was happening outside. The people they had saved were gathering and advancing towards the inner chamber of the building where the Lads and the Vulcan team were. They were clearly mind-controlled; the true culprit hadn’t been found yet.

Clyde Magnus offered to teleport them out of there and onto somewhere safe. They all consented but Clyde only teleported the Lads, leaving the Vulcan Team and himself behind. When the Vulcan Team questioned him he remained silent with an empty gaze, he too had been mind-controlled. In a moment of panic, the Vulcan Team sought solutions to escape the horde of civilians that advanced towards them. Until Palleturquoise spoke in their heads “ Want me to call you?”. Using call Palleturquoise teleported every member of the Vulcan team back to the Vulcan team house.

The Vulcan team house was destroyed, the roof was blown apart and an unconscious Kichirô lay on the floor. When he woke up he told the rest of the Vulcan Team that the house was griefed by Sanquinolency. Kichirô fought bravely but ultimately lost and Sanquinolency took the Tops and Stromboli. Fortunately, Ollie was still there asleep in her crib. After a quick divination, the Vulcan Team ascertained that Sanquinolency was taking the Tops to the islands, setting their priority in retrieving the Tops the Vulcan Team prepared to leave leaving the retaking of Ladtown to the Lads.  As they were about to leave Doctor Appledoor, the same who had revived Kalius in one of the first Vulcan Team missions appeared surrounded by Tyler the 1st, Tyler the 2nd, Tyler the 3rd, and J. She told the team to surrender and that she had no choice but to win to avoid her own disappearance in the endgame. The Vulcan team choose not to fight and after restarting her and the Tyler’s with Rodrik’s tentacles they retreated in a carriage.

### Noctia Arc

Now on the run, with their house and city lost the Vulcan Team discussed how could they catch up to Sanquinolency. By looking at the map the closest town with a port seemed to be Riverspring. With no time to lose they departed. As the trip went on Rodrik tough about his own weakness and how he had failed all the people in Ladtown by not being able to protect them, how could he become stronger?

Arriving at Riverspring the Vulcan Team was greeted with a gruesome sight, hundreds of corpses impaled. Forming a forest of corpses that extended from the road onto the city’s gates. Seeing once again the results of his weakness Rodriks's anger boiled. Nearing the city the Vulcan team could see that Riversprings was occupied by demons. As it seemed some of them were actually trying to rebuild it while others simply fought among themselves. To get to the docks they had to cross the entirety of the city, and due to a large number of demons, they had to do so undetected.

Using Kalius’s fireballs as a distraction the Vulcan team was able to sneak in through the city while the demons were investigating the noise. Protected by Baltus's cloaking spell everything seemed to go smoothly until they reached the Towns center. There Rodrik slipped and the noise attracted attention towards them, they were quickly detected by the demons, who now surrounded them.

The demons seemed mostly mindless with exception of two demon women, which seemed to be commanding the demons. Upon their detection, Rodrik readied himself to fight, but the demon women however wanted merely to talk. They had settled there after the defeat of Crença and were trying to rebuild the town in order to live there, they also wanted to contact the Lads and offer them their services. Rodrik denied this proposition, stating that he would never help them or would want their help. Kichirô however pulled him aside and tried to convince Rodrik that maybe it would be for the best to join forces. Rodrik denied this vehemently, he would not ally himself with such creatures not after seeing the countless corpses implied at the city’s gates. Corpses which the demon women called decoration. (Meanwhile, Edgar tried convincing them to change religions)  Kichirô insisted that we would be better leaving this business to the Lads and that they could probably solve it if we made arrangements for the demons and them to meet and talk. Hearing the Vulcan team refer to the Lads once again Rodrik exploded, stating that maybe the Lads weren’t as reliable as they made them out to be. That maybe leaving everything for the Lads to fox wasn’t a good idea. They had lost their capital and allowed for a demon horde to spawn at their doorstep. This greatly triggered the members of the Vulcan Team who worshiped the Lads, mainly Kalius. Rodrik kept arguing that they should just fight and not ally themselves with such creatures, however, he was outnumbered as the majority of the Vulcan Team believed it to be a good idea and that later the Lads would deal with it. Angered but seeing himself as a minority Rodrik stepped down and allowed for the deal to be made. Kichirô talked with the demon women and arranged for a possible meeting with the Lads if they were let through. The demon women pondered on taking them hostage to attract the Lads attention, but they were quickly convinced that the Lads would not care for them as they held no value as hostages. As such the Vulcan Team was let through and they proceeded towards the boat. As they approached the boat mindless demons blocked their path, in his anger Rodrik killed most of them. As he got to the boat and the Vulcan Team set sail Rodrik looked back on the demon-infested city and promised to one day come back and avenge all the people who had died by killing all the demons. The remaining members of the Vulcan Team thoroughly investigated the boat as the demon women told them that there was something in it that they didn’t know how to handle. The investigation did not take long as Baltus brought a huge sleeping ogre onto the deck.

The Vulcan Team set sail to Noctia where Kichirô divinated the Tops to be headed. While Rodrik manned the boat, Edgar investigated the Ogre after Kalius restrained him with magical glue. The ogre appeared to be alive although barely after investigating Edgar implied that it was undead although he never gave direct confirmation of this. Rodrik proposed to throw the ogre overboard as it was heavy and slowing them down. After some discussion, the rest of the Vulcan Team members agreed and Edgar began preparing a small funeral rite for the ogre.

Meanwhile, Rodrik spotted various ships on the horizon sailing towards them, not knowing if they were hostile or not he urged the Vulcan Team to ready themselves for battle and Edgar to finish the preparations for the funeral fast. As the boats approached it was revealed that there were two different factions, one with a plain yellow flag and another with a flag that some Vulcan Team members recognized as being Noctians. Kichirô decided they would help fight the Noctians. As such while Rodrik struggled to push the heavy Ogre overboard Palleturquoise wrote a polite letter to the occupants of the nearest ship, a letter which was delivered by Edgar via shooting it with his crossbow.

The ship's captain was coincidentally an old acquaintance of the Vulcan Team, a girl they saved in Actia before Rodrik joined. Now with the backup of the Vulcan Team, the ships with yellow flags turned around and got ready to face their pursuers. One of the ships was quickly brought down by Kalius fireballs, meanwhile the other was commanded by a creature similar to Discombobulate which made quick work of most of the bludia soldiers. Rodrik secured the ship making a sick drift and was able to get the Vulcan Team close to the creature, whose name was Axissimetrical. Rodrik quickly boarded Axissimetrical's ship frightening his entire crew, the rest of the Vulcan team followed and attacked Axissimetrical. In an attempt to criplle the ships Axissimetrical sent out his wires and perforated the hulls of all the ships crushing them together. The ships began to sank but Kichirô and Palleturquoise were able to stall the sinking enough for the Vulcan Team to deal with Axissimetrical.

After the defeat of the Noctians, Rodrik helped to fix all the ships and fixed their own before he urged the Vulcan Team to leave. Edgar however was busy dancing with the already drunk crew of the other ships and had to be brought by Kalius onto the ship. After a quick goodbye, the Vulcan Team departed to Noctia once more.

A day after their skirmish with pirates the Vulcan Team passed by a weird shape floating in the sky it looked like a big parallelepiped, they assumed it was built by Sanquenolancy. Kichirô wasn't able to divinate the Tops location and so assuming they weren't on the parallelepiped the Vulcan team resumed their journey. It was not long before they found another peculiar shape, a long line of dirt cubes that slowly disintegrated. Following the line, they found none other than Sanquenolancy slowly building a path of dirt blocks.

Focused on his work Sanquenolancy did not notice the Vulcan Team boat approaching. Taking this time to discuss the strategy the Vulcan Team spent several minutes discussing how to best approach the situation. Seeing a severe lack of action Rodrik took charge and steered the ship in the direction of Sanquenolancy and tried to restrain him with his tentacles. Sanquenolancy dodged them and a battle began. Thanks to Edgar who cast " Command" multiple times there was nothing Sanquenolancy could do while the Vulcan Team whittled him down. Although the Vulcan Team wanted to keep him alive and interrogate him when the last blow was dealt Sanquenolancy popped and disappeared leaving behind only a greenish orb.

The Vulcan Team wondered if they had killed him and where the Tops could be. Kichirô decided to try and divinate something about the events that lead up to Sanquenolancy being alone using the green crystal ball he had left behind. Through this new crystal ball, Kichirô could see that there was a fight in Sanquenolancy's boat, a fight involving one of the wire aliens. Sanquenolancy was defeated, his boat destroyed and the Tops were taken to Noctia.

Ready to set course Edgar ran up to Rodrik to ask him to sail to Noctia, Rodrik however did not notice him as he glanced at the ocean. His mind had been so focused on finding the Tops that at first he did not realize it but, the place they sailed was where his boat sank some months ago. looking onto the calm sea Rodrik imagined not only his comrades dead beneath the waves but also the thing that had saved him. Edgar's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he apologized, stating that this place brought him bad memories. After hearing this Edgar offered to do some funeral rites for his fallen comrades throwing salt at the sea and chanting some prayers. Rodrik thanked him for the effort.

As the boat set course for Noctia Kalius pulled Rodrik aside to speak to him. Kallius told Rodrik that sometimes in battle he would make decisions for himself that he did not think benefited the group and that he was not their leader and should not act like one. Rodrik apologized and thanked Kalius for speaking to him truthfully, He promised to spet down as he only did that with the group's best interests in mind as he believed Kichiro lacked in combat leadership. Rodrik hoped that if one day he had men follow him it would be through respect. Kalius also mentioned the Lads and how Rodrik seemed to distrust them. Rodrik explained that only the strong should lead and so far the Lads had not proven their strength, letting two of their cities be destroyed and causing massive casualties. Kalius responded that they were indeed strong and hoped that in time they would prove themselves to Rodrik, and Rodrik hoped that too. As the conversation ended Rodrik laid a hand on Kalius's shoulder and told him that despite the Lads strength he should be more confident in his own and not dependent on others so much. Kalius was strong and it was time he realized it. Rodrik and Kalius parted on friendly terms.

Right after his conversation with Kalius Rodrik went to speak with Kichirô. He firstly apologized if he had stepped on his toes in terms of leadership but then told him if he did not want that then he should take a more active hand and truly lead them instead of remaining on the sidelines. Kichirô told Rodrik he would carry that in mind. After these conversations, Rodrik pondered were he did wrong in his decisions, wondering if the Vulcan Team or anyone would ever accept him as Leader.

Some days passed and the boat was finally nearing Noctia. As they approached they saw multiple boats carrying flags similar to the ones on the boast they had helped a few days back. The Vulcan Team assumed there was going to be an attack, and maybe they could use it as cover. There was still a problem however, what would they do with Euler? Palleturquoise recommended leaving her in the boat as she would be in danger if she went to battle with the Vulcan Team. Rodrik disagreed as the last time they left someone important behind it went horribly wrong. The discussion spanned some minutes while diffrent plans were put forwarderentward. After some time Euler herself stated that she would accompany the Vulcan Team. Palleturquoise heavily disapproved of this and tried dissuading Euler stating that the Vulcan Team was not competent enough to protect her and that their last fight was not how all their fights went. Palleturquoise went so far as to call them borderline incompetent. Rodrik was angered and responded that if Palleturquoise did not trust them she was welcome to stay behind. Rodrik went as far as to claim that the Lads weren't much better failing to protect their capital. The discussion ended there with Euler making the firm decision to accompany the Vulcan Team. Rodrik pledged to give his life for hers to protect her, a sacrifice Euler accepted.

The Vulcan Team decided to dock the ship in the nearby shore as approaching the capital by ship could draw too much attention and going by foot would be more discrete. As they landed Palleturquoise and Janey Set began celebrating saying that the Lads had retaken Ladtown and were taking Doctor Appledoor to trial. Rodrik was relieved. Edgar seemed very uncomfortable as he exited the boat, telling Rodrik that this land was cursed. Rodrik inquired about what exactly was cursed in the land. Edgar told him that they used no money, they knew no other gods besides Acteon and they were all animal people. Rodrik did not understand how did this make the land cursed as in Sotenheim they worshiped only Soten and Edgar was part animal himself.

Shortly after landing two natives came by the ship to ask them questions. Edgar lied saying that they were traders and came to see the sights. In exchange for a gold piece, the natives answered some questions about the fort and the forest. The fort was heavily fortified (surprise it's a fort) and the forest was cursed as anyone who entered it never left. The natives told them that someone in the castle had the power to sense everything in it and the Vulcan Team assumed it would be one of the people with wire powers, that maybe they could extend their wires through the forest ground and sense vibrations. In exchange for more information, Baltus promised to make them a knife out of a bone one of the natives offered. They left promising to come back in two days, leaving the Vulcan Team to plan their assault on the fort.

After analyzing their option the Vulcan Team unanimously agreed that the best course of action would be to approach the fort from the river. Not only would it be faster but also in a way more discrete as they wouldn't have to cross the forest giving away their intentions. Rodrik was asked to calculate the time of the trip as to arrive at night in order to better hide the ship. Rodrik was not very good at calculations but through sheer instinct, he was able to take the ship and arrive by nightfall. With a couple of hours to spare before nightfall Rodrik went below deck to practise some combat moves. As he emerged from below deck and gazed at the waves a chill ran up his spine. Rodrik felt as if something terrible was happening as if two enormous creatures were fighting strurring the water. He transmitted this feeling to the Vulcan Team who promised to be ready.

As Rodrik began steering the ship inland, a voice sounded in his head.

"Watch yourself"

Rodrik felt as if all the heat was expelled from his body at once, he knew that voice but he had not heard it since the wreckage. Edgar noticed this and asked him if he was ok, Rodrik explained he was but that "it" was talking to him and he did not enjoy it. Surprised Edgar tried to do the same and communicate with Kefka, which failed.

As the ship approached the city the waters began to become more and more agitated and Rodrik struggled to keep the boat on course. The sight that awaited them was a burning city surrounded by ships and in the water two enormous monsters fought each other. The Vulcan Team recognized one of them being " The Lantern" a monster that previously sank ships that approached the islands.

" I wasn't expecting it to be literal," said Rodrik shocked at the scene.

After the initial shock had passed the Vulcan Team decided to push ahead at full speed taking advantage of the chaos. However, the fight between the monsters produced massive waves that capsized the ship. Rodrik was able to protect Janeu Set and Ollie from the impact but the rest of the members were thrown overboard.

Fortunately, no one was gravely injured, Rodrik rescued Janey Set and Ollie who couldn't swim. Edgar, Palleturquoise, and Baltus swam by themselves to the boat. Kallius rescued Euler who knew only how to float not swim and Kichirô propelled himslef with shape water. Once they were all safe grabbed onto the capsized boat they notice that something was grabbing onto it, it was the ogre they tossed overboard at the very beginning of their journey. He did not seem to realize the boat was capsized still grabbing on furiously onto the hull. With no time to waste the Vulcan Team ignored the ogre and boarded the undead raft that Edgar was constructing by making all his undead cross arms and swim.

The undead raft carried most of the Vulcan Team members to the safety of a beach nearby, they all breathed in relief as they left the water. The relief lasted about one second as a gigantic wave caused by the fight between the monsters began to approach the beach. The Vulcan Team began a desperate run to escape the wave, Kichirô ran past everyone with his horse legs taking Palleturquoise and Euler with him. As the wave was about to crash the Vulcan Team members braced for impact, then a voice sounded in their heads.

" Consent to teleport"

They all consented and were teleported by Palleturquoise who was carried to the safety of a cliff by Kichirô. As they all breathed in relief once more Palleturquoise said.

"Too many. Should not have done that."

Before passing out. Even with Edgar's cure wounds, she wouldn't wake up. This was a major blow to the Vulcan Team as Palleturquoise was the one who would teleport Euler in case something went wrong. Rodrik picked up the unconscious Palleturquoise carrying her on his back.

"We have to honor her and follow the path she laid for us." He said "No one will die."

The Vulcan Team tied Palleturquoise to Kichirôs back and began moving towards the castle. The only way forward was through a bridge that connected the castle to the beach they were standing on. Although the bridge seemed empty the gate at the end was closed and some smoke came out of one of the towers that guarded the bridge.

Rodrik asked Kichirô and Kalius to stand back while he investigated. The two towers on their margin seemed empty, so Rodrik called Baltus and Edgar and moved to the gate. As they approached a guard appeared on the tower and commanded them to halt.

"Who are you and what is your business."

"We are here to help the Red Queen's armies" Said Rodrik.

"State your name." asked the guard

"Rodrik Redwall" anwsered Rodrik.

The guard pulled out a list and began running through the names looking for Rodrik, while he did that Rodrik asked Baltus if he could climb the walls, he responded affirmatively and Rodrik immediately Eldritch blasted the guard killing him. Baltus ran to the gate and climbed it to the other side. Another guard showed up at the tower, Rodrik killed him too. More guards began showing up but Baltus was able to open the gate and the Vulcan team made quick work of them.

Now near the city, the Vulcan Team decided to use Baltus cloaking spell to sneak in unnoticed, most of the guards would be busy with the monster battle so it should be easy. Kichirô noticed a glint above the castle as if someone was observing them with a spyglass, the Vulcan Team assumed it should be the Skyblock aliens.

Sneaking into the castle was easy as expected, once inside the castle the Vulcan Team found no resistance until they reached the upper floors, right below the throne room. There as soon as Baltus onto the floor a wire creature appeared and knocked him down. After bringing Baltus back from to consciousness the Vulcan Team discussed a plan to avoid the wire creatures. The floor seemed covered in thin wire, using thunder spells on the wire seemed to stop the wire creatures from appearing but only on a small area, not wanting to waste energy the Vulcan team decided to power through with Edgar and Rodrik in the front and the remaining members running behind. Rodrik made quick work of the creatures and with clever use of Edgar's undead, they were able to clear the two trapped floors.

Finally standing in front of the heavy throne room door. The Vulcan team prepared for the uninevitable conflict that would follow. Rodrik felt as if crossing that door would signal his death, even so, he prepared himself. He told Edgar he trusted him, and asked Kalius to take care of the girls. Pushing open the doors the Vulcan team was faced with the tall armored figure they had seen in Kichiro's vision. The armored figure drew its sword and pointed it at them.

"Are you the one's who have been holding the Tops?" It asked

"Yes" answered Rodrik

"Are you the Vulcan Team" he asked again

"Yes, and we came for the Tops, all of them." Said Rodrik

"You side with the Stentor there is no point in talking." The armored figure raised its sword.

"Hand over the Tops and no harm will come to you, this will only end with your death." Said Rodrik pointing his spear.

The armored figure raised his sword, wire from all directions flew to it and the creature increased in size. Rodrik, Edgar, and Baltus stepped forward, while Edgar and Rodrik engaged the creature Baltus ran towards Red Tops who sat on a throne behind the armored entity.

"This will be your last battle." said Rodrik trying to fear Inaudibliness who did not seem phased.

Meanhwile, Kalius and Kichirô supported Edgar and Rodrik by attacking Inaudibliness. Inaudibliness then disappeared its armor clunking to the ground and several wire monsters came from the ground to attack the Vulcan Team which made quick work of them. Inaudibliness then returned to its armor and raised his sword once again bringing forth more wires which came for the windows behind the throne breaking them, there were so many that they broke the pillars around the throne, the wires were all absorbed by Inaudibleness which increased in size once again. Baltus was getting close to Tops while the Vulcan Team desperately tried to hold back Inaudibleness and the wire creatures. As Baltus finally reached Tops the ground began rumbling and the ceiling exploded as various red boxes of explosives fell from it creating a hole in the ground, from the windows behind the throne a white magical tiger jumped through. Baltus seeing their situation worsening by the second summoned his spiritual weapon which cut the string of a chandelier above inaudibliness. The chandelier came crashing down but Inaudibleness did not seem phased by the damage. Baltus then took off running with Red Tops. Inaudibleness tried to cut off his retreat by summoning wire monsters but the Vulcan Team covered Baltus while he retreated. Meanwhile, the boxes stopped falling from the hole in the ceiling and two of the skyblock aliens jumped through and joined the battle, trying to prevent Baltus from escaping with Tops. Fortunately, the Vulcan Team worked together to cover Baltus and he was able to safely leave the throne room. However, Rodrik and Edgar were stuck in the throne room fighting the string monsters and Inaudibleness while Kalius and Kichirô were cornered by Agglutinative. Rodrik and Edgar did their best to fight Inaudibliness and the wire monsters, but he jumped through the hole on the floor to give chase to Baltus. Rodrik then rushed to help Kalius and Kichirô by attacking Aglutinattive while Edgar followed Baltus who was being chased by the magical tiger who jumped across the room and into the corridor. Kalius and Kichirô were able to escape the room while Rodrik was left to fight Aglutinattive, he hit Rodrik with his sword which sent him flying across the room and into a wall before resuming his chase of Kalius and Kichirô.

Rodrik got up and followed, Kalius Edgar and Baltus were already running along the corridor, after Kalius defeated Aglutinative, but Kicchirô was being held back by multiple string monsters, when Rodrik engaged the string creatures and Kichirô was able to flee but one of them hit him across the head and Rodrik fell. Kichirô yelled to Edgar who quickly ran back to help Rodrik. As Rodrik edged on unconsciousness he heard a familiar voice. " Get up, you havent done enough yet, get up." Gathering all his straight Rodrik rose to his feet again. Kalius teleported near him and ended the remaining string monsters. While they ran after Baltus Kalius gave Rodrik two health potions which he drank.

Around the corner, they could see that Baltus was already far ahead and the magical tiger was being held by bludia troops as well as an armored Geopolitical. The Vulcan Team ran around the magical tiger to avoid its attacks. despite the Vulcan Teams' valiant efforts and an amazing show of teamwork when Rodrik, Edgar and Kichirô combined their powers the tiger did not seem anywhere close to going down. Geopolitical insisted that they secured the Tops and he would take care of the tiger. The Vulcan Team decided to do so. Baltus voice echoed through the castle as he announced that a volcano had just erupted near the city and the lava flow was coming. The Vulcan team made haste but Edgar decided to stay behind and help Geopolitical with the Tiger, at first Rodrik also stayed behind but then he heard Euler say that Baltus and Kichiro were fighting Inaudibleness in the floor below. Rodrik then grabbed Edgar against his will and ran to help.

In the floor below Inaudibleness fought against Baltus and kalius while Kichirô tried to protect the girls. Rodrik and Edgar ran into the fight attacking Inaudibliness. Inaudibliness threw an attack against Kichirô which made him go down but he was quickly healed by Edgar. Rodrik jumped in front of Kichirô and rushed Inaudibliness. Kichirô and Kalius kept unleashing thunder spells on Inaudibleness, one of Kalius spells was so strong that reduced the armored figure to a red puddle, the fight wasn't over however as the red goo reached and grappled Baltus pulling him into the goo. Rodrik jumped in and attacked killing Inaudibleness and releasing Baltus.

" I said this would be your last battle." said Rodrik to the red puddle at his feet.

One of the battles was over but a row of string monsters still blocked their way and Edgar ran back to help Geopolitical despite Rodriks attempts to stop him.

As Edgar ran back as fast as he could to help Geopolitical, Kalius, Baltus and Rodrik quickly dealt with the remaining string monsters clearing the way. They could not however leave their friend behind, as such Kalius, Rodrik, and Kichirô ran after Edgar leaving Baltus to scout ahead. Rodrik asked Baltus to scout but not engage anyone and return as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Edgar was already in the room with Geopolitical and began attacking the tiger, Geop+olitical kept shouting for Edgar to leave him and secure the Tops, but Edgar ignored him. Running through the corridor the remaining members of the Vulcan Team decided that Rodrik and Kalius would go ahead to help Edgar fight off the magical tiger while Kichirô would stay behind in the corridor to watch over the girls. However, as soon as they arrived on the floor where the Tiger and Geopolitical were fighting Kichirô ran past both Kalius and Rodrik in order to get in card throwing range of the Tiger. Rodrik looked back to Kalius in surprise at Kichirôs immediate disregard for the plan established not thirty seconds ago, Kalius only response was " He is old." Kalius then decided to stand back himself while Rodrik and Kichirô fought ahead.

Meanwhile, on the lower floors, Baltus scouted ahead, as he reached the entrance of the castle he saw the female skyblock alien blocking the entrance with what appeared to be iron blocks. Baltus, true to the plan marked the room and left to relay the information to the other members of the Vulcan Team.

As Baltus ascended the tower once more, Rodrik tried to convince Edgar to leave Geopolitical, Edgar however kept insisting that he had a plan and he would not leave him. Edgar then used a spell to transform himself into Tops and ran towards the throne room while pretending to be Tops to try and distract the Tiger. Meanwhile and totally unaware of Edgar's current predicament Kalius decided to turn Tops invisible with a scroll of greater invisibility. He then ran up to the floor where the fight was happening and shouted that he had lost Tops. Rodrik immediately panicked at this information not noticing Kalius attempts to wink at him. Rodrik asked Kichirô to fall back and help Kalius look for Tops while he ran after the Tiger, the disguised Edgar, and Geopolitical that had run back in the direction of the throne room. Kichirô who was told that Tops was not actually gone by Kalius ran after Rodrik to warn him.

The fight between the Tiger, Geopolitical, and Rodrik remained while they all chased after Edgar disguised as Tops. Edgar however used command and ordered Geopolitical to flee and the Tiger to halt giving him time to run into the throne room unseen, shout " The Tops escaped through the window" and disguise himself as a Raven guard corpse. Rodrik not knowing that Tops was not really gone shouted back the same to warn the rest of the Vulcan Team. Kichirô who meanwhile was able to catch up to Geopolitical told him that the Tops was safe and he should retreat, which he did, Kichirô was also able to catch up to Rodrik and clarify the whole Tops conundrum. With this information, Rodrik charged into the throne room to rescue Edgar. The tiger had already entered and was looking for Tops near the window, seeing no one in the room beside the Tiger Rodrik scoured the room and noticed an extra raven guard corpse. Suspecting it was Edgar he approached the body and prepared to grab it and run. The Tiger noticed Rodrik but instead of attacking he knocked the red beacon out of the window and jumped through floating away.

With the danger gone Rodrik and Edgar ran out of the throne room to join the rest of the Vulcan Team, they both rode Kichirô who ran through the rooms as fast as his horse legs took him. Rodrik explained in a slight panic how the tiger jumped out of the window and floated. The red Tops was now visible since the invisibility spell had worn off and Paleturquoise also woke up. Despite only having one Tops the Vulcan Team realized that they could not at least in their current condition rescue any other Tops, their best course of action would be to lay low then to their wounds and re-storm the castle later. In order to escape the castle the Vulcan Team decided to jump out of one of the windows with Palleturquoise dampening the fall with one of Kalius spells she then would call the remaining members. The plan worked, despite Palleturquoise passing out again and the Vulcan Team soon found themselves in the relative safety of the forest after some minor skirmishes with guards.

There they finally laid down and pondered on their lives and on their hardest mission yet. Edgar did the usual rounds stitching up Rodrik and Baltus who had taken the most damage. Rodrik congratulated Kalius on his performance on the battlefield and asked him if all missions used to be like this before he joined since he did very few missions before the tournament. Kalius responded that this mission was probably their hardest one yet. The Vulcan Team decided to rest for the day to regain strength and attempt to rescue the Tops when night fell. Without red Tops they could not activate the beacon, for the time being, the Tops were safe until the Vulcan team decided to attack again or they found the Vulcan Team. Upon hearing these considerations Euler prayed that they did not have a Kichirô, Rodrik responded that he would be more scared if they had a Kalius. Euler was also worried that they would continue the tournament without Kalius, but Janey Set could not get anymore information about Ladtown besides that it had been retaken by the Lads.

As everyon began getting ready to sleep Rodrik made sure Euler was ok and unhurt before taking his post as the first watch for the day. Distancing himself from the rest of the team Rodrik sat on the floor and summoned his armor, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before he could even ready himslef a voice popped in his head.

"I am here whats up." Rodriks patron sounded

"Do you know anything about the Tops?"

"No i have no idea."

"Is there anything useful you know?"

"I am sorry you are barking up the wrong tree."

"I see, anyway, you made me stronger just now didnt you?"

"No, you made yourself stronger."

"Thank you i will need it"

As Rodrik's shift came to an end Edgar came to switch places with him. Edgar found Rodrik in full armor staring at a big boulder on the ground. Rodrik asked Edgar if he could move the boulder, Edgar tried but was unssucefull. Rodrik then approached the boulder and lifted it from the floor much to Edgar's dismay. Rodrik tried to explain how he believed his armor was alive and making him stronger Edgar however was beginning to be scared of him and refused to touch the armor despite Rodriks insistence. Rodrik left for the camp where he tried to explain the same to Kalius who listened attentively, when asked to touch his armor Kalius did so only to find it wet with seawater and with a weird slimy texture as if it was made of some living alien material. Kalius and Edgar were left wondering if Rodrik was going mad.

Meanwhile Janey Set expressed her concerns that Palleturquouise might be showing signs of madness.

With the Vulcan Team now rested and ready, Edgar used a new ability to locate the missing Tops. The Blue Tops seemed to be in some sort of underground cell beneath the castle, while Green Tops seemed to be way above the castle where a floating form could be seen.

The Vulcan Team formed a plan, to head towards the dock to regroup with Bludia troops and gather some soldiers before attempting to invade the dungeons. While the Vulcan team discussed the details of the plan Rodrik pulled Edgar aside and asked him for an undead eye, Edgar although surprised by the request obliged.

Shortly after the Vulcan Team set out for Noctia once again. On the way there they spotted refugees that left their destroyed city many of them with wounds. Edgar pondered on if he should help them but the time was short and they decided to move on. On the docks, they found a platoon of Bludia and Yellowdia troops as well as Trob and 52 (some thersians the Vulcan team had encountered in their previous expedition to Actia). Geopolitical immediately asked for a run-down on what happened, 52 told him that they were attacked by a Kraken (The Lantern) and that the wife of the leader (Pasta) had turned into a giant monster to fight it. They also fought on land but were losing until Pasta defeated the Kraken and swiped all the enemy soldiers fighting on the docks. 52 recognized the Vulcan team and asked where Dundee was to which Rodrik answered that he had fallen in battle. Kichiro asked for the troops to aid them and Trob said he would stay and that he considered himself victorious that he outlived the crocodile (Dundee). This sparked Rodrik to insult him and even challenge him to a fight, saying that Dundee was a true warrior and he was a coward. While the conversations lasted a group of Cho'en emerged from the waters saying that something had been slaughtering them. From the waters behind them the orc that followed the Vulcan Team since Riverspring emerged. Rodrik tried to converse with him by saying "Halt, what do you desire?" but he was ignored and everyone opted to follow Kichiro that said, "Move".

After relocating the Vulcan Team was offered 7 soldiers to accompany them onto the dungeons. They crossed the destroyed city once again until they arrived at the castle, trough Kichirôs divination they found their way onto a deep stairway at the end of which the Tops should be. However, the stairway moved and was constructed in a weird fashion making descending it troublesome. The Vulcan Team descended nonetheless until they were found by Thoughfullness (one of the string aliens), who asked them if they were after the Tops. Edgar said no, and Rodrik said yes. Thoughtfulness then disappeared only to come back larger and face the Vulcan Team. Despite his size and power, the Vulcan Team was able to force him to retreat. While he retreated he moved the stairs causing the Vulcan Team to take 2 hours in order to reach the bottom.

There Thoughfullness had set a trap for them forcing them through a narrow bridge, Rodrik was hit by one of his attacks and fell down the abyss but fortunately was called by Palleturquoise before he could reach the bottom. Once again the Vulcan Team drove thoughtfulness back but not before he destroyed the bridges forcing Rodrik to carry everyone across. Finally, on the other side of the bridge in a row of cells they found blue Tops, as well as one of the skyblock aliens and J.

Rodrik busted the cell of blue Tops open, she seemed very happy to see them. J who was on the cell opposite J asked if he could be released too, at first Rodrik said no that he deserved to be locked down for the crimes he committed against LadTown. Kichirô, however, told Rodrik to release him. Rodrik argued but as Kalius told him once he was not the leader. Feeling the anger build inside him, Rodrik looked at J, one of the people who burned Ladtown and made mental slaves of its residents. He couldn't let it slide, it did not matter what Kichirô said. Rodrik opened the cell and ran J through with his spear killing him, to the shock of everyone around him. Palleturquoise quickly noted the event and Kichirô said that he was not right to do that, Rodrik ignored them. The Vulcan Team also decided to bring the skyblock alien with them, they sacartky asked if Rodrik would kill him to which he responded "His life may still serve a purpose".

Back at the bridge they found walked in on Thoughtfulness getting his head split by Pasta. After carrying everyone across the two broken bridges Rodrik thanked Pasta for her help before racing up the stairs with the remaining of the Vulcan Team. Once at ground level, they discussed how to proceed. They had managed to get two Tops safely, however, Palleturquoise was experiencing symptoms of madness and the last Tops seemed to be in the floating structure created by the Gliga aliens far above the city.

After some discussion, a plan was set. Baltus would summon his eagles to take Palleturquoise up into the Structure, then she would "Call" them all. Janey Set pointed out that if the madness got too aggravated they could take Palleturquoise to Consenti to get her cured, they would only have to remove her ring and she would pass out.

Ready to set the plan in motion the Vulcan Team climbed to the tower of the castle once again to be closer to the floating structure. Once in the throne room that once had been the battlefield where they fought Inaudibleness, the magical tiger and the Gliga aliens Rodrik looked out the broken window. In front of him, four mountain peaks vomited molten rock onto the river below creating an almost apocalyptic view. Rodrik remembered seeing the tiger throw the red beacon below but there was no sign of it, he assumed the tiger took it, information he relayed to the Vulcan Team.

Baltus summoned two eagles that took both Palleturquoise and Edgar up in the air into the floating structure. While the eagles flew away Rodrik, asked Kalius to save enough energy to cast feather fall on him and the girls if things went wrong, Kalius agreed.

Palleturquoise then called Kichirô, Kalius, and Rodrik, she asked if it was everyone (she going insane), and the Vulcan Team was quick to remind her that she forgot the Tops, Janey and Euler. Palleturquoise called them too but Janey refused to come, the Vulcan Team decided to leave her with Geopolitical and the Bludia/Yellowdia soldiers.

The structure the Vulcan Team found themselves in seemed to be covered in pressure plates with exception of a path made of a different kind of material. The pressure plates didn't seem to activate any mechanism even so the Vulcan Team was cautious while transversing it, forming a line to step only on pressure plates that had been stepped on before. Upon reaching the path with no pressure plates, they were detected by one of the Gliga aliens who, using a teleportation orb, confronted them.

The alien asked about their business, Edgar tried to deceive him by saying "Taxes" but Rodrik immediately asked for the Tops. The alien said that it did not matter since they would all die anyway, and teleported away before coming back shortly after. The Gliga alien constructed structures around himself and dug down the structure, activating explosives beneath the Vulcan Team's feet. The Vulcan Team was able to run and escape the explosions that created holes in the structure, with the exception of Kichiro who let himself get hit by an explosion and refused to move even when threatened with other explosions(he also going insane). When Kalius moved onto the area with the pressure plates, the Vulcan Team realized she couldnt place blocks there, with that information they all moved onto the pressure plates, except Kichiro who was ~~no crlh~~ separated from the team. With the Gliga alien now in sight the Vulcan Team was able to hit him multiple times, and Blatus destroyed one of his contraptions before he had a chance to activate it. This prompted the alien to retreat with a teleporting orb.

With the fight over the Vulcan Team regrouped with Kalius grouping all the girls around him, to cast feather fall in case something were to go wrong. As they discussed their next move Palleturquoise approached Rodrik.

"Rodrik I heard you needed an eye for your spell, here." she said before gouging her fucking eye out.

Rodrik screamed in instant panic by seeing this little girl casually gouging her eye out, he called for Edgar who unable to save her eye merely stopped the bleeding. Panicking Rodrik asked what he should do with the eye, to which Palleturquoise responded "Use it for the success of the mission". With Palleturquoise's madness clearly increasing Edgar asked Rodrik to knock her out, but before Rodrik could karate chop her, Palleturquoise came back to her senses and freaked out. In between screams she said "Take me to Consenti." before taking off her ring and passing out.

The Vulcan Team tied an unconscious Palleturquoise to Kichirô, Rodrik made sure to stress to Kichirô that now he had a child on his back and that he could NOT get hit by any explosions or fall down the structure. Kichirô remaioned silent.

Now regrouped the Vulcan Team began to make their way to the center of the structure where Baltus could sense the green Tops. There they could see multiple dots that seemed to be Gliga aliens as well as walls being erected around the center, probably to protect Green Tops.

The Vulcan Team ran for an hour through the gigantic structure that spanned the entire city until they began to near the gigantic center structure. As they approached they were quickly spotted by one of the Gliga aliens that jumped from the gray center structure and began to charge at the Vulcan Team. The team quickly assumed formation with Kalius and Kichirô staying behind while Rodrik, Baltus, and Edgar advanced. As Carcernazation ame into 300 feet of them, he asked:

"Do you have any of the Tops?"

"No." Said Edgar.

"Do you have any of the Tops?." Asked Rodrik in return

"No." Said the Carcernazation

" That's a lie!" Responded Rodrik as he charged.

Carcernazation then began setting up a device similar to the one the Vulcan Team had seen previously, a pink block with a button on top. Knowing the meaning of this Rodrik, Baltus and Edgar began charging him. "You are all dead." Said Carcernazation as he adjusted the buttons. A portion of the ground behind them exploded leaving a hole in the structure. Baltus and Rodrik tried to destroy the pink block but before they could Carcernazation destroyed the path behind himself, leaving a huge gap between the Vulcan Team and the place where Green Tops was probably being held. Another Gliga alien, Machinations then joined the fight and informed Carcernazation that the Vulcan Team was indeed holding two of the Tops. Both aliens built platforms on top of the structure, probably so they would be safe in case it got destroyed. Baltus decided to go after Machinations while Edgar and Rodrik rushed Carcernazation. Before they could reach them, however, Cancerization summoned another pink block and before Baltus could destroy it she blew up the ground beneath their feet. Baltus was on the edge of the explosion and was able to avoid falling. Edgar and Rodrik however were right in the middle of it. As soon as he felt the ground beneath his feet give out Rodrik grabbed Edgar, by twisting his body and using the power of his armor he was able to throw him over the ledge and onto safety. Rodrik however fell, with nothing up his sleeve Rodrik accepted his fate "So this is how it ends" he thought as he fell. Unlike during his shipwreck Rodrik felt no panic, no anger, he did his job right before his death he had saved someone and that seemed to be enough for him. Then a voice sounded in his head "Rodrik, please consent." His mind flashed back to the shipwreck, just like last time moments before his death a voice had called out to him, but this wasn't the eldrich creature that called out to him beneath the waves this was...Euler? "I consent!" said Rodrik.

Rodrik was then immediately teleported to Euler, who had donned Palleturquoise's ring.

Rodrik thanked Euler profusely.

" I said I would give my life for yours, but it was you who saved me. Thank you, Lady Euler." Rodrik said.

Euler then explained that since she was of Ladian blood she could wear the ring and not suffer the effects of madness as they would be distributed to someone else. Kalius (who is of Ladian blood although unbeknownst to Euler) immediately devised a plan and asked for the ring which Euler gave reluctantly. Kalius then called for Green Tops, the spell failed however with no response from Green Tops. Euler and Kalius hiphotheoszed that she could be in a different dimension or warded.

Meanwhile, Rodrik ran back into the fray where Baltius and Edgar were 1v1 Machinations and Carcernazation. Carcernazation pulled out a strange-looking purple sword that seemed to be made of some other material than steel. Edgar by using his signature bells and Warhammer was able to wound him.

"You are a worthy opponent." Proclaimed Carcernazation.

"And you are cubular." Responded Edgar.

Edgar defeated Carcernazation and upon seeing her comrade fall Machinations retreated back into the fortress.

With the help of Baltus's eagles, the Vulcan Team was able to cross the gap that had been formed by Cacernazation(although both eagles had to be employed to carry Kichirô since he is horse).

Now near the fortress, the Vulcan Team noticed that there was only a small gap in the wall, Rodrik entered first to assess if it was safe. Despite being well lit the corridors were trapped with arrow shooting devices as well as remotely activated fireballs (With Rodrik being hit by those on one occasion), hidden behind paintings. Edgar accurately deduced that the painting must have been hiding traps.

The Vulcan Team was able to navigate the trapped maze relatively safely until they reached a large circular room where Machations was waiting for them with a bow in hand. The Vulcan Team engaged her in combat.

"You are too late." She said "The town will be destroyed."

Machinations was a powerful opponent being able to break Rodrik's magical armor and render him unconscious. Edgar was quick to heal Rodrik who resummoned his armor and with a powerful eldritch blast killed Machinations. eldritch

The Vulcan Team then moved onto the next room where a black and purple portal emitted strange sounds they had been hearing ever since they entered the structure. Rodrik asked Edgar if that was the portal to the realm of the dead, to which Edgar responded that he did not get good vibes from it. Rodrik responded that since Edgar and the portal had the same color scheme maybe he would know something about it, Edgar called him racist.

After investigating the portal, Rodrik proposed to go in first himself alone to scout for enemies. he stepped into the portal where he awkwardly stood for a few seconds before being transported to a realm of fire and lava. There a huge man-made fortress sat upon a lake of molten rock, but no enemies were in sight. Rodrik returned to the Vulcan Team and said it was mostly clear but that they should go and remain together. Edgar and Kalius however immediately stepped through the portal. As he arrived Kalius called Green Tops once again.

### ***THE NETHER ARC***

Kalius call received no answer and returned to the Vulcan Team defeated. Euler however mentioned that since he was no son of the Lads it was obvious that the spell would fail and asked to be her to call Tops. Kalius, although nervous and struggling with his words, finally explained to Euler that he suspected that he might be one of Koltar's sons. Euler agreed that might be possible since shedim are rare but that she still wanted to try since she suspected that she might have been subjected to a ritual that made her able to use the ring. The Vulcan Team agreed and crossed the portal with her, when Euler called green Tops she appeared beside them. Since Kalius was unable to use the ring Rodrik asked if there could be a chance that he was not Koltar's son, Kalius had a minor existential crisis. Still, Rodrik said to him that he was a great warrior and the blood that ran in his veins did not change that.

### War arc

Once with the Green tops in their possession, the Vulcan Team executed their escape plan, by jumping off the structure, having kalius cast feather fall and Euler call all of them. The structure built by the Gliga aliens had fallen onto the city, completely obliterating noctia. Due to the high altitude of the structure, the Vulcan Team was able to glide onto the forest where upon landing found Janey Set. Janey seemed happy to see them but Rodrik immediately lashed out at her for failing her duties and abandoning Palleturquoise. Janey also showed them the red beacon she found in the forest, Rodrik examined it, sensing powerful magic emanating from it, the beacon also seemed to have a dorr but it was firmly shut and could not be opened. Kalius attempted to use identify on the beacon but was unsuccessful. While the Vulcan Team discussed their next steps in regards to the beacon the Tops and their return to LadTown, a magical circle appeared on the floor and suddenly, Laedo, Koltar, Talio, Clyde Magnus, Aelita, and Doctor Appledoor appeared in front of them.

The Vulcan Team was surprised to see them but relieved to see backup had finally arrived. Laedo checked on Euler, and the Vulcan Team informed them she was safe as they fulfilled their job of protecting her and also rescuing the Tops. The Lads did not seem impressed. The Vulcan Team gave a quick run down of the situation. The Lads said that if they wished they could come with them, they were going to exile Appledoor and Aelita and then stop by Consenti. The Vulcan Team gladly accepted as they also had to take Palleturquoise to Consenti to get rid of her madness. Before departing Clyde and Talio wanted to examine the beacon, during this time Rodrik pushed Kalius into confronting Koltar. Although he was reticent Kalius eventually gathered the courage to talk to Koltar.

Kalius began speaking telling the story of his mother and how he came by the information that Koltar might be his father, before he could finish Koltar stopped him:

"You are one of mine arent you?"

"Yes, i think so . " Said Kalius.

"I knew it, you have my eyes you know."

Koltar embraced Kalius and asked him for his forgiveness, that he wasnt there for him when he should have, and that he was a fool in his youth. He also told him that he remembered him from the recruitment day when Kalius tried to impersonate him.

"You are not me Kalius, and you shouldn't try to be. You are yourself and I know that you will do great things, you have my blood after all!"

Koltar embraced Kalius one last time before telling him that he would be welcome to meet his brothers at anytime back in LadTown, and that he would leave him to deal with the emotions in his time. Koltar then ran to Talio to brag about finding another one of his kids.

After examining the beacon Clyde stated that he had never seen anything like it and that it should be taken with them. Rodrik carried the beacon inside the teleportation circle and Clyde teleported them away.

Their first stop was a desert where the Lads dropped off Aelita and Appledoor exiling them for being traitors to the Ladian empire. Then the circle took them to Consenti right outside the Eyes meeting room. The Vulcan Team rushed inside and urged the eyes to help Palleturquoise. The yes told them that in order to rid Palleturquoise of Madness they had to become sailor girls themselves and go inside her mind. All of the Vulcan Team agreed to this, although Baltus had to be convinced due to him not wanting to leave the Tops alone again. However, he was assured that they would be safe with the fingers guarding them.

The Vulcan Team then entered, the ritual chamber with the pool where they donned green rings and were told to never take them off. Before they entered the pool, Edgar told Rodrik not to let the Kraken take him and to not run into the light. They then entered the pool and began the ritual.

The ritual consisted of them being instilled with messages from one of the Lads, and receiving the entire history of their ascension to power. Baltus and Edgar got a message from Laedo " Always preserve your life." Rodrik from Gareth "Courage and Smart", and Kalius from Sane "Deceive everyone." The ritual gave them limited asses to Sailor Girls powers however they were unable to rank up. Kalius was the exception as he became Color Crocodile and had access to the full powers of the Sailor Girls.

Now formally part of the Sailor Girls Establishment the Vulcan Team cast "Mindwipe" on Palleturquoise. They were transported to an island with a mansion, a supposed representation of Palleturquoise's mind. There they found a deranged Palleturquoise, that attacked them by sending Consenti guards and a naked Gareth after them. The Vulcan team easily defeated the fake Gareth and the Guards, however, deranged Palleturquoise kept teleporting and they were unable to restrain her. Kalius deduced that there should be another, sane Palleturquoise somewhere, and with the help of Edgar's locate person they found her caged beneath the mansion. The sane Palleturquoise told them to kill the deranged one as it was the embodiment of her madness, she was accompanied by Hibiscus that was apparently executed for repeated attempts at escaping prison and his conscience had traveled to his pair's mind.

Meanwhile, Kalius discovered that he could summon and manipulate objects inside the island, he did so by summoning a sword, making Rodrik run into a wall, and finally, turning all the palace walls invisible to find deranged Palleturquoise the immobilizing her and finally separating her head from her body. This seemed to free Palleturquoise of madness but also made Hibiscus fade away. With their mission complete the Vulcan Team left Palleturquoise's mind, except for Rodrik who before leaving told her, it was kind of weird that her protector was a shirtless Gareth. Oalleturquoise blew him up immediately after.

Once outside the Vulcan Team, confronted a now awake and sane Palleturquoise. The colors asked how it had gone and Edgar began mentioning a "Nipple Glowing Gareth" but Rodrik quickly covered his mouth. The Vulcan Team asked Palleturquoise if she wanted to go get healing for her missing eye, Kalius intervened saying:

"Why she has me!" Hinting at the fact that he was now an eye as well.

Palleturquoise said no that she would be fine as is, Rodrik also gave her back her eye that she had given to him back in Noctia. Palleturquoise thanked Rodrik for not using it in his spell to which Rodrik replied:

" It would work anyway it needs to be undead."

Palleturquoise made a "bruh face".

With the Vulcan Team members now officially Sailor Girls, they were handed their green skirts, Rodrik tied his around his arm. Along with being a sailor girl came the fact that they now had pairs. Kalius was paired with Palleturquoise, since thy were both colors, while Edgar was paired with Baltus and Kichirô with Rodrik.

After most ordeals were sttleded Palleturquoise stormed out of the chamber in search of Janey Set casting "Mindwipe" as soon as he saw her as means of punishment. While Palleturquoise punished Janey Set, Baltus was hit one by one of the eyes, however, she was quickly rejected.

Three days passed while the Vulcan Team members, recovered from the madness, after these three days the Vulcan Team decided to leave for LadTown as the Golden Fist tournament would be resuming and Kalius was still in the run. They said their goodbyes to the eyes and left for LadTown. Once they arrived they noticed that the city had been mostly rebuilt and life was coming back to normal after the Tyler's attack. Kalius, Edgar, and Roimmediatelyiatly headed for the mage tower to complain about yet another scroll shard. After some banter and more than a little blackmailing Kalius left the mage tower with 3 free scrolls and again the promise of not spreading "rumors" about sharting scrolls.

Upon their arrival at the Vulcan Team house Lorelei reprimanded them for leaving without notice and for so long but was happy to see them. She also informed them that their prisoners almost starved. The Vulca Team realized that they had completely forgotten about the Magma Team still under arrest in their cells. They were quick to release them however and they left without any trouble despite Lance wanting to stay for the free food.

Red tops saw the drawing of the green beacon and drew her own beacon next to it realizing that they fit together leaving room for one more, the blue beacon. The Vulcan Team quickly realized what this meant, by joining the three beacons they could recreate the white beacon since Red, Green and Blue together should make up white. As such they had all the Tops but were missing two beacons, the green beacon was the one being fought over by Gareth's army while the Blue beacon was unknown. Kichirô tried to divine its location but was unsuccessful.

Surprisingly Infinite showed up at the Vulcan Team house shortly after their arrival, he was beaten and with a bigger beard but safe. Using their newfound sailor girl powers the Vulcan Team relayed to Geopolitical that infinite and the tops were safe in Ladtown, he responded that he would be returning. Rodrik also checked in with Stromboli who informed them that she was already in town.

The next few days were spent in an unusual calm after the hectic week that they had been through. Rodrik, Kalius, Edgar and Kichirô visited the LadTown ministers to try and establish a meeting with the Lads to discuss their next mission. On the way there they were approached by a familiar man Niggo who tried to coerce them to bet on the Tournament winner, alkthous most of the Team refused Kichirô bet 300gp on Kalius. During their meeting with the ministers they were informed that the Green beacon was still being fought over by Ladian and Gliga troops, this in addition to it being in Shadow beast territory made the beacon very hard to retrieve. The ministers also informed them that a party of Kunka mercenaries would be leaving soon for the front. The Vulcan Team then decided that if no further order came from the Lads they would be leaving to help retrieve the beacon as it was the only lead they had.

During his time off Rodrik trained and tried to get his armor improved by Sheeva, although he was unssucedssul in the last endeavor. Baltus reinforced the Tops room. Edgar gathered corpses for revival. Kalius prepared himself for the upcoming match, and Kichirô drank tea.

On the day of Kalius's match all the Vulcan Team gathered at the Arena to see it. Presiding over the match was Koltar. Despite the match being technically the semi-finals only Kalius and Stromboli showed up and as such it was decided that their match would decide the winner of the tournament. The fight then began with Stromboli charging Kalius and taunting him, Kalius however was able to restrain her with Darkbolt and deal a considerable amount of damage. When this happened Stromboli transformed, her arms grew fur and she acquired an animalistic appearance turning into the magical tiger they had fought on the island. The entirety of the Vulcan Team raged, with Rodrik having to be forced down by Baltus so as not to enter the arena himself. However, despite the overwhelming strength of Stromboli's tiger form Kalius was able to keep her at bay with a cunning combination of spells and little by little whittle her down. As both their strengths began to falter Stromboli threw an attack that would certainly down Kalius, however, Palleturquoise put her arm through the fence and called Kalius, teleporting him to her and saving him from the attack. With one last spell, Kalius took down Stromboli and was crowned the winner of the Golden Fist Tournament.

#### Brain cancer

The crowd roared as Kalius stood victorious, the presenter of the tournament came down to congratulate Kalius for his mighty victory, to ask him if he had any words, and to ask him for what prize he desired. Kalius said "I hope I did the lads and the Vulcan team proud." and choose the necklace of the Lads. Koltar who was standing watching the match prized the quality of the fighters and Kalius and quickly turned his back on the arena so as to not lets his subjects see the proud tears that rolled down his face.

In the stands the Vulcan Team celebrated the victory of Kalius, however, Rodrik stood silent. Never had he seen such a display of power, the amount of bravery cunning, and sheer magical potential Rodrik witnessed here was beyond anything he had ever seen an ally do. He believed himself worthy of leading the Vulcan Team, to make decisions for himself, even after Kalius himself had called him out on it. But how could he be worthy of leading when his own teammate was so much stronger, Kalius was on a whole different level. Then and there Rodrik made a decision, he must pledge himself to Kalius until he was worthy to stand on equal ground with him.

When Kalius left, the arena Edgar was quick to congratulate him and tell him that if he did turn into a lich he wouldn't be able to kill him. Kichirô remained in the stands for a while before coming down. Rodrik asked Kalius to speak to him in private, away from the rest of the Vulcan Team Rodrik expressed his feelings to Kalius. How he felt blinded by his own pride, and then kneeled and pledged his spear, his shield, and his life to Kalius, until he could stand with him as equals. Kalius helped Rodrik rise to his feet again and told him to keep training and that he would surely stand with him one day. Rodrik promised that we would. They then reunited with the rest of the Vulcan Team and headed home for Kalius much needed rest.

Back at the house and after a night's rest, Rodrik woke up early and asked Edgar for one of his undead for training. Although suspicious Edgar lent him the undead, and Rodrik left for the gym. Shortly after Euler knocked on the Vulcan Team's house door with news that they had been summoned for a meeting and should present themselves in the town center as soon as possible. After waring Rodrik who was still in the gym the Vulcan Team made its way to the minister's building were they met with Talio and other Ladian ministers. The Lads had a new mission for them, they knew about the three beacons and with two in their possession, they wanted the third and last one that was stuck in between three armies. The Vulcan Team's job would be to retrieve the final beacon and bring it to Ladtown. They would leave soon for the front with the Kunka, but first, they had to meet with Laedo in his house.

While leaving the Minister's building the Vulcan Team saw Koltar standing on a stage in front of many soldiers delivering a speech:

“Shall we allow our audacious enemies to violate with impunity the territory of the Republic? Will you permit the army to escape which has carried terror into your families? You will not. March, then, to meet him. Tear from his brows the laurels he has won. Teach the world that a malediction attends those that violate the territory of the Great People. The result of our efforts will be unclouded glory and durable peace. March now my soldiers to war!”

The soldiers roared their hearts ablaze at Koltar's speech. Koltar then quickly teleported away while the army began to prepare for departure but not before winking at Kalius.

The Vulcan Team made their way to Laedo's house where they were met by Euler, Laedo, and a maid. Laedo told them to sit in some chairs across his desk while being very rude to the maid. Making her trip and spill tea and being overall verbally rude. This left the Vulcan Team uncomfortable. When they were all seated Laedo asked Edgar which painting he preferred from the two in opposite walls of the room. One depicted a city on fire and the other a bunch of naked fairies. Edgar choose the second one, Laedo asked the same question to other members of the Vulcan Team stating that he was making a study. He then revealed the maid to be one of Doctor Appledoor's bodies and that she had some news for them regarding the side effects of ELOBOOST. Apparently, the consumption of ELOBOOST makes rocks grow in your brain which will be fatal over time. The Vulcan team immediately thought that they would die but Laedo assured them that they were valuable and that it would be fixed. The maid then used a spell to get an image of each of the Vulcan team members that took ELOBOOST potions. As predicted they all had growths in their brains, what wasn't predicted was that Kichirô had a growth about 10 times the size of the others. even Doctor Appledoor said she had never seen one that big and that she didn't know if he would survive extraction. Nevertheless, they would all be teleported by Clyde onto the island where the main body of Doctor Appledoor was in order to be operated on.

The Vulcan Team was immediately teleported to the deserted island where they found themselves in a small settlement and were greeted by a naked man covered in blood. Rodrik put himself between him and the Vulcan Team but the man merely wanted to guide them inside the tent where Doctor Appledoor was. Inside the tent in one corner there was a pile of gold and jewels, the center was dominated by a golden bed, and off to one of the side, a pile of body rags and instruments lay scattered. Doctor Appledoor greeted the from the golden bed, the Vulcan Team discussed if it would be safe to be operated by a former enemy but ultimately decided to go through with it. Doctor Appledoor asked if there were any additional procedures that they wanted to undergo, Kichirô asked to be attached with the metallic arm that the gwarves fashioned for him, Rodrik desired to be fitted with the Tyler stones. Doctor Appledoor proposed to buy them but Kalius refused due to the price being too low. Not being able to buy the stones she said that they would be better fitted onto Kichirô since they possessed healing properties and his operation would be the most life-threatening. The Vulcan Team agreed. The operations then began first with Rodrik then Kalius and finally Kichirô, due to the healing power of the stones Kichirô lived through the operation. When he woke up he described it as waking up from a long dream. He did not recall much of what had happened up until that point, not even remembering that he and Rodrik here mentally bonded. Even so, Kichirô seemed saner than ever. Happy with this development the Vulcan Team returned to the teleportation circle and were teleported back to Lad Town.

#### Actian Invasion

When arriving at Lad town the Vulcan Team was met with a disturbing sight. The main square of LadTown had been completely overrun by Protagonian troops, guards and civilians alike lay dead or unconscious on the floor. High above surrounded by a whirlwind Talim shot gusts of wind down onto the square. While initially frozen by shock the Vulcan Team quickly decided what to do, under the command of Kalius they would take Talim's necklace in order to draw her away from the main square and avoid further damage. Kichirô was in charge of Ollie and entered Leado's house to leave her in the relative safety of the mansion, Edgar looked for survivors among the square, Baltus summoned his eagles and flew up to meet Talim, Rodrik and Kalius charged the troops.

By reading the book of the sailor girls the Vulcan Team learned that this was a full-scale invasion of the Ladian empire, likely because Talim had heard of the Ladian empire's intentions to invade the islands and took preventive action. They also learned that Euler was stuck in the tavern were she worked as part-time and was surrounded by enemy troops. Seeing no use in staying for the battle Kichirô along with Palleturquiuse rode in Euler's aid. Lucia after being telepathically contacted by Palleturquoise teleported her and Kichirô to the tavern. Euler was sitting at a table with J and the Po'tu the assumed leader of the Crab people that were invading the Ladian empire alongside the Actian troops. Happy to see Kichirô Euler, approached him and whispered to him that she had bought them two hours before the 50 000 troops standing at the beach would move and invade the city. She told Kichirô to take all the booze he could and burn it at the well next to the church and Koltar's house. Confused about his mission but resolute Kichirô picked up the booze and left.

Meanwhile, at the main square, Rodrik challenged Talim to a duel, the challenge fell on deaf ears but Kalius took Rodrik and teleported himself and him up in the air to meet her. Rodrik was able to stab her with his spear and grapple her, he ripped off her necklace and threw it to Kalius who was slowly falling due to the effects of another spell. Baltus eagles arrived on time and served as a platform for the Vulcan team to stand on while fighting Talim. Talim proved to be a formidable foe, knocking Kalius unconscious and throwing him off Baltus eagles. Fortunately one of the eagles was able to pick him up and take him to Edgar who promptly healed him.

Kichiro telepathically asked Rodrik what was happening and Rodrik relayed the information on the Talim battle. Kichirô told him all he knew about the booze plan, Rodrik told him that it should be some kind of signal and to go ahead with the mission while he distracted Talim. Palleturquoise asked a now awake Kalius to teleport and using his power as color crocodile he teleported both Kichirô and Palleturquiuse to their location. Now reunited Edgar, Kichirô and Kalius decided to complete the booze mission while Blatus and Rodrik fought off Talim. Kalius mounted Kichiro along Palleturquoise and they speed towards the well. Edgar stayed behind and tried to get the baby from inside Laedo's house by breaking the door. Unfortunately, Edgar was being followed by the entirety of the Actian land troops in the square who lead by Captain Alex had made it their mission to kill him. As soon as Edgar broke down the door to the mansion he was set to face-to-face with Laedo's wife and the maid holding the baby and behind him an army of enemies (in insight, not the best decision). The woman shouted and Laedo's wife tried to flee with the baby, the group was saved by Clyde who awakening from his nap closed the door with a magical wall. Edgar then teleported to Palleturquoise to help his Team members.

200 ft above all this Rodrik and Baltus still fought Talim and backup had arrived. Stromboli, in her tiger form, had joined the fight and attacked Talim. With the combined might of the three, Talim suffered heavy damage, her human skin peeling away to reveal the green matter behind it. Twice she fell unconscious, the first she awoke before hitting the floor and continued her fight, on the second time her body spattered on the floor with green goo spreading around it. From her corpse, a green gosht-like figure arose.

Back on the ground the rest of the Vulcan Team met with the first finger near the well, who told the that a mysterious ogre was seen coming toward the city. Kalius instructed her to collect more information and to come back alive. The booze was poured onto to the well and lit on fire, with the mission now complete the Vulcan Team still had to defend themselves against the small army in the Ladtown square.

The skies turned grey and the wind around the green figure that was once Talim blew stronger as a tornado formed around it. Rodrik, Stromboli, and several unconscious bodies were caught in it and began spinning around the creature. The wind was strong making it difficult for Rodrik to even know which side he was facing. Rodrik urged Stromboli to finish Talim, or else the tornado would keep wreaking havoc across Ladtown. Many times did Rodrik try to him talim with spells but to no avail as the wind made it difficult for him to aim. Fighting against his own body so as to not pass out or vomit all over himself, Rodrik mentally contacted Kichiro. " Teleport me out please."

Around the burning well, the rest of the Vulcan Team looked in awe as one of the Legendary LADS emerged from the flames, and not just any one of the LADS. The one called they called "The Strongest LAD" the Mighty Bininho stepped forth. Palleturquoise almost passed out and fell to her knees when she saw Bininho, surprised by this reaction said "Levanta-te olha que isso esfola os joelhos."

Meanwhile, Rodrik is still spinning in the tornado.

Although initially shocked by seeing one of the LADS who long was thought missing appear right before their eyes, Kalius was quick to ask for Bininho's aid. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a bit of a language barrier as Bininho spoke in riddles conjuring weird and incomprehensible sentences and words. Some of it although was understandable and she seemed very confused about the whole situation she found herself in, asking many questions about Ladtown, the tornado, the Vulcan Team, and the LADS. Kalius tried to answer most of it while urging Bininho to help them fight Talim.

Meanwhile, Rodrik is still spinning in the tornado.

Finally convinced Bininho and the Vulcan Team rushed towards Talim, expect for Kichiro who stayed back to help Palleturquoise. Who still seemed shaken by the sight of Bininho. Kichirô asked a guard to help her but Palleturquoise refused and did not desire to be touched. As such Kichirô instructed the guard to find a woman to help.

Meanwhile, Rodrik is still spinning inside the tornado.

The rest of the Vulcan Team was still charging at Talim, the tornado had now become stronger and larger, ripping stones off the square floor and projecting Stromboli who fell on a roof nearby. Edgar rushed to heal her while Bininho threw stones at Talim and Kalius attacked with spells. Kichiro still in the back conjured his familiar and emçorew him with a lighting breath.

Meanwhile, Rodrik is still spinning inside the tornado.

Finally, Kichirô teleported Rodrik to his side taking him out of the spinning hell he had been trapped in. Rodrik rushed to help fight Talim and dealt enough damage to make the tornado stop. Talim then unleashed a barrage of attacks that pushed Kalius back and tore even more stones off the ground. With the tornado gone, Bininho was able to close the distance inflicting heavy damage on Talim. With Talim now weakened Kalius fired one last fireball on top of her. For a second Talim became human again and swore vengeance before disintegrating into dust.

With Talim gone the Vulcan Team received the information that the fight at the beach had already started, with Kunka breaking the treaty and performing an surprise attack. Kunka could hold them off for five hours but after that, they would retreat. They tried to convince Bininho to help with the fight, however, due to the language barrier and Edgar's poor attempt at speaking the language of the fey it almost lead to Bininho murdering Edgar. Fortunately, the Vulcan Team was able to get their point across and convince Bininho to help. Before departing the Vulcan Team tried to help the survivors of the Talim attack. Next to Koltar's house, Rodrik found an unconscious Sheeva next to the dead body of Trunquer, he quickly brought her to Edgar and asked him if she would be alright. Edgar assured him she would but asked him why he was so "agitated" by this.

Meanwhile, the Vulcan team received the information that the Ogre was sighted heading towards Ladtown square and would arrive in two minutes. Quickly helping the unconscious civilians and killing off the remaining enemy troops the Vulcan Team and Bininho prepared for the confrontation. When she saw the ogre Bininho immediately flew into a rage charging at the enemy, Rodrik, Baltus and Kalius followed her to provide support. The fight was fierce but soon Bininho realized that the Ogre wasn't taking damage and would fight on indefinitely. She then asked for the Ogre to be brought to the well where she was summoned from because that was where she felt the strongest. Mustering their strength, Kalius, Rodrik, Baltus and Bininho pushed the ogre all the way to the well. Meanwhile, with a separate plan, Edgar and Kichirô began gathering dead bodies in a pile.

The Ogre was finally thrown into the well and then with some final parting words, Bininho jumped too. Kalius, Rodrik, and Baltus saluted her courage and left to join their companions while the arms, legs, and various body parts of the ogre flew from the well. When the Team finally reunited Edgar was just finishing his spell raising 6 bodies to fight for the Vulcan Team. Palleturquoise was right beside him and the most well-kept secret of the Vulcan Team was finally outed. Edgar was a necromancer.

Under the lead of Kalius the Vulcan Team decided to rescue Euler, however before they could do anything Palleturquoise called Euler and the sailor-girl that was with her to the Vulcan Team. This caused her to be affected by madness once again and start petting and punching Edgar's beak (just what we needed). With Euler secure, the Vulcan Team decided to rest and regain their strength before marching into the beach. Rodrik sat next to Sheeva and began sharpening the spear she made for him. Inside him, he could feel his emotions in turmoil, on one hand, he knew the LADS were strong he could feel it every time he met them. On the other, they were never present when their people needed them the most, which made them selfish and bad leaders. His rage against the LADS fought against his admiration for their strength and then he felt something change within him.

Rodrik meditated and despite the chilling sensation that ran down his spine he reached for the dark abyss in the recesses of his mind, where he knew he would find him.

"I need to be stronger if I am to face what comes next. Can you give me more power." Rodrik said.

"All the power i give is power you earned for yourself." The voice responded

"I dont know if I am worthy of this power"

"If you were not it would not be given to you"

Rodrik opened his eyes and felt new power surge trough his body, jumping to his feet he ran to find Edgar.

He found his companion inside the mage tower gathering books and scrolls, Rodrik's sudden presence frightened Edgar who dropped the scrolls he was carrying. after helping him gather them Rodrik lead Edgar outside to show him whet he had been practicing with the undead he borrowed from him.

Rodrik began to explain on how he had been trying to find a way to make his magic flow trough his body and empower his muscles and strikes instead of just casting spells. Edgar's undead were good to study because they also used magic to move and magic is what animated them. Rodrik then tried to demonstrate his newfound powers by punching an large piece of stone debris. His punch was so powerful that it send the stone flying into Koltar's house damaging the wall. Lucia Nancia was watching nearby and wrote the happenings on the book, Rodrik quickly added his own entry apologizing for damaging the wall.

While this all happened the people of Ladtown that managed to escape the attack and hide began exiting their homes to congratulate the heroes, this included the bazooka sisters who threw themselves onto Kichirô but after realizing Kalius and Rodrik were the ones doing the fighting changed their attention to them. This disrupted Kalius concentration who was trying to attune to his new necklace forcing him to leave for the mage tower to seclude himself.

While Kalius attuned to the necklace, Kichirô continued to read the book and update the Vulcan Team on the status of the battle. The battle at the beach continued, however, Kunka had moved and was now fighting the invading forces in Koltar's pass. Rodrik was gathering bodies and bones for Edgar while he ~~summoned the dead to fight for him in eternal servitude~~ practiced his religion. Soon enough as the hour they had set to leave for the battle approached Edgar had summoned a large battalion of skeletons and reanimated bodies to fight for him. Unfortunately, Lucia Nancia saw Edgar perform necromancy and wrote in the book " Edgar Poe is a necromancer and should be executed." Upon reading this Rodrik became suddenly enraged and called out Lucia, stating that if it was not for Edgar the entire town might have been destroyed and that he along with the rest of the Vulcan Team continuously risked their lives to protect her. She merely stated that she was following the law.

Things did not get any better when Rodrik tried to contact Janey Set, who was back at the Vulcan Team house with the Tops, to ask if they were all safe he did not get a straight answer. Worried Rodrik reported to Kalius who had just finished attuning to the necklace. Kalius, Rodrik, and Baltus then quickly set out for the Vulcan Team house to assess the situation. They found the house and the Tops to be unharmed once again Rodrik was enraged this time at the incompetence of Janey. Rodrik berated Janey which almost made her cry until Kalius stepped in and realized that Janey could not communicate telepathically very well. As such he devised a code for them if they asked Janey a question A signified yes and B no C signified danger. With the code in place Rodrik, Baltus and Kalius returned to the Ladtown square, and soon the entire Vulcan Team accompanied by Carlus the Blessed who was looking for his faithful steed Loner Johny.

After a full hour of walking, the Vulcan Team found themselves on the beach where hundreds of crab people were marching from the sea onto the beach, Ladian soldiers laid dead on the beach and even the Marines and Lt. Smacker hesitated to go forth into battle. Kalius wasted no time and used the powerful necklace he had received, a blinding light came from the sky hitting Kalius, and his body began then to change into a terrifying creature. The Crab people who saw it went mad almost immediately, killing their own comrades and fleeing onto the sea. During about half an hour Kalius using the power of the necklace drove the invading forces back onto the sea while the rest of the Vulcan Team rescued and helped the survivors escape the battle. After all the Crab people were driven back and the necklace's spell faded away Lt.Smacker thanked the Vulcan Team and rallied his troops to march into Koltar's pass. The Vulcan Team followed.

Once they reached Koltar's pass the Vulcan Team saw themselves face to face with over 45,000 crab people. Kunka and her goons here trying to fight them off and she was very thankful to see the Vulcan Team arrive. Using the necklace again Kalius transformed himself into Garetheon and charged through the invading horde. The Vulcan Team followed his lead and soon reached the commanding officers of the Crab army. While Edgar protected their flank with his undead legions, Kalius, Baltus and Rodrik focused on taking out the leaders. These proved to be short work for the Vulcan Team, without leadership the reaming invading troops were caught in the absolute meat grinder that was the Vulcan Team. Enemy after enemy fell at their hands and as they funneled more and more troops to try and stop the Vulcan Team Kunka and her goons pushed forward and eventually drove the Crab army out of Kolatr's pass. The battle for Koltar's pass had been won.

As the battle finished Rodrik went to check on Edgar, who was covered in Crab blood. Rodrik congratulated Edgar. Edgar responded: "Sometimes Kefka takes the wheel".

After the battle, the Vulcan Team returned victorious to the Lad Town square to meet with the ministers and decide what their next steps should be. The townspeople cheered as the Vulcan Team made their way to the minister building. Once inside the building, the ministers informed them that the next steps would be to wait for the Lads who were currently in an unknown location.

#### The J's

However, they were soon informed that not all of the invaders had retreated with a battalion of them still stationed at J's bar. The Vulcan Team then decided to mobilize there to force their surrender.

On the way to J's bar, Rodrik voiced his concerns to Kalius about the Lads constant disappearances in times of need and their apparent lack of care for the people they ruled over. Kalius tried to appease Rodriks concerns by stating that the Lads had a lot on their plate and that they were indeed very strong. Rodrik said that he had begun to doubt if strength was all it was required to be a good leader.

Arriving at J's bar the Vulcan Team found it on fire and surrounded by crab people. J was also outside and proudly stated to the Vulcan Team that they had killed Po'Tu the leader of the invading crab people. The Vulcan team doubted this and asked to see the body to which J insisted that they enter and saw for themselves. Inside the bar, there were several other people but Po'Tu's body could not be seen. J insisted that they entered a small room in the back of the bar. Rodrik decided to enter first followed by Edgar. Inside this room, there was another J and three Tops, Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta. J tried to barter with Rodrik but Rodrik was adamant that he was in no place to make demands and that if they wanted to they could take the Tops by force. J then revealed every crab people to be in reality a J and a battle commenced outside between Edgar's undead army and the J's. Rodrik immediately attacked the J in front of him. His punch exploded J's rib cage and made him fly against Cyan Tops knocking her unconscious.

The battle began with many J's coming to attack the Vulcan Team. Rodrik punched a hole through the bar's wall to allow for the Tops and Edgar to escape. With the Tops safely outside the Vulcan Team quickly dispatched most of the J's. Kalius asked for one to be left alive for interrogation. However, when only two were left they took a suicide pill and died. Before they died they turned into Koltar and Talio saying "You don't know who to trust now." before dying. After the battle, Rodrik put out the fire in the bar and met with the rest of the Team outside. He checked to see if the Tops were safe and apologized to Cyan Tops for hurting her, stating that his powers were new and difficult to control.

Now with the Tops secured in their possession the Vulcan Team contacted Janey Set to make sure the remaining Tops were safe before returning home. Janey responded with the code "A" meaning everyone was safe.

Back at the house they crossed paths with Lady Euler and the first finger All. Euler asked to be debriefed on the new situation. Kalius began to explain that with the discovery of the Magenta Yellow and Cyan Tops there could be new ways to activate the beacon. Since the beacon would only trigger the endgame with either the Red, Blue , and Green Tops together or the white Tops it should be expected that the beacon would also open with other light combinations that generated white, such as Red and Cyan for example. Since now they were in possession of the complementary color Tops as well it should be expected that unless there are repeated Tops the Vulcan Team was in possession of all of the except the white.

Euler asked them what they would do next, and the Vulcan Team responded that they were originally instructed to retrieve the final beacon from the warzone in the continent but now that they had more Tops they would wait for further orders. Euler then left, remarking that they should be tired and rest. She left the 1st finger to help guard the Tops.

Inside the house, they found Janey and the remaining Tops as well as Stromboli sleeping. The Vulcan Team introduced the Tops to each other, Stromboli was very excited to see more Tops being brought to the house going as far as considering staying for longer. Stromboli has scheduled to leave that day back to Actia since this was her reward for placing second in the Golden Fist Tournament. As such, she sent troops ahead of time to the island and was going to meet them on the way since she could fly. She pondered on what to name her new country and Rodrik suggested "Stromheim" as in "Stromboli" and "heim" meaning home, Palleturquoise also suggested Ladia as a name. Stromboli liked that Rodrik's name best.

While Kalius cleansed the madness in Palleturquoises mind Rodrik asked Stromboli why did she buy ballistas and got herself into debt for the tournament if she could just turn into a giant magical tiger. Stromboli answered that she did not know she could until she "died" and came back as a tiger unlocking the ability. "If I had known I would have died sooner she said."

With so many people now under their roof the Vulcan Team decided to begin sorting them into rooms, despite Stromboli's efforts for all the Tops to sleep in her room. Once the Tops were assorted according to their own will, The Vulcan Team set the first finger All as a guard since she said she did not need much sleep. Kalius, Edgar, and Rodrik slept in the dungeons while Kichirô and Baltus slept in their respective rooms and two tops slept in each available room except for Kalius's room who was left for Palleturquoise.

The morning came with no issues, with the Vulcan Team taking breakfast as always made by Lorelei. Edgar regarded that Kalius spoke in his sleep and Rodrik that Edgar gnashed his beak in his sleep. Edgar responded that it was Kefka taking over, which mildly scared Rodrik.

As they ate breakfast Lady Euler came into the house, she asked to see the Tops since she heard the news that new Tops had been discovered. The Vulcan Team remarked that she had already seen them the previous day. Lady Euler responded that she had been very busy and did not have time to check in on the Vulcan Team yesterday. Rodrik and Kalius immediately realized what had transpired, the Euler from the day before was most likely a J in disguise (we kinda fucked up). Realizing their mistake Rodrik barred the house doors while Kalius made truth serum to ascertain if everyone was who they claimed to be. Fortunately, there were no J's among them at the moment, despite Edgar acting extremely suspicous by using J's sunglasses that he looted from one of the J's. Safe for now the Vulcan Team and Euler discussed the probability of there being multiple J's infiltrated in the Ladian government. They had to be careful.

Euler also had their next mission. Infinite was dead, They had a murder to investigate.

According to Euler Infinite had been murdered in the previous day. His body was found near Ladtown square. As such the Vulcan Team made their way to the murder site to investigate the death of one of their allies.

When they arrived at the location, Tonko and Kunka were also there as well as two guards guarding the body. The guards saluted the Vulcan Team as they approached. Rodrik suggested that maybe the guards should be sent away before the beginning of the investigation since they could be J’s. Kalius sent the guards away and began investigating the body. Behind Infinite’s corpse there was a message written in his own blood. The message said the following:

“My dearest friends of the Vulcan Team. As I lay here in what can only be considered the final moments of my life I wish to bestow upon you my finest wishes in regards to your qualification and subsequent victory for the so called end game. With that out of the way I must admit this last month I wasn't entirely honest with you all. I managed to find a Gewa base in the outskirts of town and with the help of Steve and the ministers we took them down. That base contained 2 Tops which I kept from you guys due to how shaky you all seemed to be. Now after this invasion I am convinced that your team will be the one to finish all of this. Why? because I’m cooping. Frankly speaking you probably don't even stand a chance ...This is getting a bit long; I am bleeding out and it hurts. I think I'm going to pass out so I want to tell you where the two Tops are but shit what if the J's  see it? So I’ll say it like this: X-72rr3ee2h(73)ghjg(ydgv)sdgtwgeNQ). Now for the most important part. I'm certain there is a Stag among us. They can shape shift naturally and avoid lie detection easily. The best ones perfectly mimic people and can even copy magic. But I've seen through it!! The impostor is ...”

Worried about the implications that the J’s could avoid lie detection and the existence of an impostor in their midst the Vulcan Team asked Edgar to bring Infinite’s spirit back to ask him some questions.

Although Infinite’s spirit seemed to be far away it eventually returned to his body trough Edgar’s spell. First Kalius asked him who was the impostor, to which he answered Steve. Then who had killed him, to which received the same answer, Steve. Kalius also asked why Steve killed him to which Infinite answered, because he is a traitor. Kalius further asked how many Tops there were, Infinite answered 12 that he knew of. Kalius asked where the Tops were to which Infinite answered that they were taken to the beacon by Steve. With Infinite’s spirit fading and unable to answer more questions the Vulcan Team decided to ask Regicide if he could decipher the message Infinite left.

They noted Infinite’s last message on a piece of paper and cleaned the wall of the house so no one else would see it. Then took Infinite’s body to the nearby temple so it could be properly taken care of. They left his body near the many others who had died during the invasion. The Vulcan Team the left for the ministers building except for Rodrik who stayed behind to say a few words over his corpse before joining the rest of his team. As he made his way to the building Rodrik looked for Sheeva but could not find her.

In the minister building the Baltus, Kalius and Rodrik approached Regicide in private. Meanwhile Edgar attempted to pitch the construction of a Kefka temple to the remaining ministers.

The Vulcan Team told Regicide about Infinite’s death and his final message. Fortunately, Regicide did now what the encrypted message was, it was written in their native tongue the message read:

“Stag took them to the beacon.”

This meant that the Tops were being taken by Steve to the beacon, as such their two objectives aligned, and the Vulcan Team began making the preparations to leave for the inner continent.

Before leaving Rodrik asked Euler and All to take care of Ollie. The Team decided to take the Tops with them to avoid them being captured as well to activate the beacon in case those were the Lad’s orders. Rodrik showed apprehensive in activating the beacon since it could mean the Tops death. The other Vulcan Team members assured him that they could not be sure if it would kill them and even if it did it could save many more lives. Although still not convinced Rodrik agreed that taking the Tops would be the best course of action to keep them safe. Since Ladtown was proven to not be a safe place at all, facing two invasions in less than two months.

The Vulcan Team decided to prepare for one day before leaving. Kalius spent this day gathering potion components in the forest. Rodrik went looking for Sheeva, he found her helping people burying the bodies of those who had perished in the invasion. Rodrik tried to console her on the loss of her friend and mentor Trunker who was killed during Talim’s rampage. Sheeva told Rodrik that “It did not seem real.” To which Rodrik responded with “It never does.”. Rodrik apologized for not being able to save Trunker and assured Sheeva that she could count on him if she wanted to talk and that although he would be leaving soon, he would be back and probably visit her since is equipment would need tending. They said their goodbyes and Rodrik left disappointed in himself that he could not console Sheeva better. Later that day Edgar and Rodrik tried naming Rodrik’s combat moves because they thought it would be really cool.

#### Battle for the Beacon

Once all preparations were finished the Vulcan team left for the inner continent with two wagons carrying all the Tops. The voyage went by without incident for the first 5 days, with Kalius gathering some ingredients and Edgar and Rodrik training and naming combat moves. On the 6th day Baltus noticed something approaching the wagons from behind. As it approached the Vulcan Team identified it as being Null. She was clearly wounded and running away from a flock of harpies. The Vulcan Team sprang into action, Baltus and Rodrik ran to face the harpies, while Edgar rushed to heal Null. Putting themselves between the harpies and Null Baltus and Rodrik fought them off while Kalius attacked them with spells from the back. Although they did damage Rodrik they were mostly outmatched by the Vulcan Team. Then something came running from behind the harpies. A large bull like shadow beast was rampaging in the direction of Null. The beast hit Baltus and Rodrik pushing them back. Rodrik regaining his balance rushed the Shadow Beast. Using the Beast’s body to propel himself up in the air Rodrik shouted “Coral Kick” before kicking the beast’s head and smashing it onto the ground. After defeating the beast Rodrik and Edgar celebrated how cool he had looked (sucking my own cock here).

Null after having her wounds tended by Edgar explained that she was with another convoy headed for Gareth’s camp. They were attacked by harpies that charmed some of the people into walking into the woods and attacked the others. Only Null was able to escape. The Vulcan Team decided to attempt to rescue any survivors and deal with the harpy problem.

Guided by Null the Vulcan Team arrived at the site of the attack, there only empty wagons remained. As they left their own wagons to investigate a beautiful singing voice started to be heard, charmed by the voice Palleturquoise, blue, green, red and magenta Tops as well as Baltus began to head for the forest. As the Vulcan Team tried to stop their companions from heading towards the forest harpies descended on them and began attacking. The Vulcan Team once again was able to quickly deal with the harpies despite contending with their charmed companions. As the last of the attacking harpies was defeated the sky above the Vulcan Team darkened with the shades of dozens of harpies looming over them. In the centre of the all stood a familiar figure, Black the mother of Ollie. Recognizing the Vulcan Team Black stopped the attack and descended to greet them.

The Vulcan Team was happy to see Black, mainly due to the fact that they would not need to fight all the harpies. Black greeted them and told them that she was sent there to cut supply lines from the Ladian army. The Vulcan Team asked if there were any survivors to the caravan attack, to which Black said that they were all dead since her harpies needed food. Despite her attack on Ladian forces, Black provided some very valuable information about the opposing force, such as J holding a position of power and that their forces were dwindling as the war effort proceeded. Aditionally the Lads had recruited the demons from RiverSpring onto the army something Rodrik did not approve of given his promise to cleanse the city from them. Since Ollie was safe, Black offered to turn coat and ight for the Lads if they could provide shelter for her and her harpies. The Vulcan Team assured that they would so their best to negotiate a favorable deal in her stead. Black promised to not kill anymore innocents and to cut the supply lines of the enemy. Although conflicted with the fact that they let a demon that had killed several innocents go the Vulcan Team ultimately decided it to be a necessary evil. The remainder of the trip to the camp was uneventful.

The army camp was everything the Vulcan Team expected it to be there were hundreds of tents spread across a field with mercenary groups, demons and Ladian army soldiers preparing for battle. The Vulcan Team met with the *de facto* leaders of the army Hitleria, Ligma and Preference, who were in charge since Gareth had dissapeared. Hitleria and Ligma were eyes from the SGE, while Preference, however, was a human-like shadow beast.

The three leaders, took the Vulcan Team inside their war tent and explained the state of their situation. A tactical map showed the positions of the different army units across the battlefield. The Ladian army occupied the northernmost position, the Gliga empire possessed the most central position controlling most of the battlefield including the area with the beacon. For some time now their forces have been forced back by the Gliga Empire army. At some point the Ladian forces had control over the region with the beacon, but since then they have been driven far back. The region was now under Gliga control. Besides the Gliga army some small contingents of the "Unga Bunga" people as they called them (very racist), were spread about and engaging in guerilla warfare. The "Unga Bunga" refused to surrender due to their belief that they were chosen by God and that this land belonged to them, among their ranks some sentient shadow beasts had been observed. Hoping to understand more about the mysterious sentient Shadow beasts Rodrik asked Preference about the origin of the such creatures. Prefrence explained that they were created by the "Unga Bunga" in a desperate war effort. However since the death of the shaman at the hands of a mercenary group their creation had ceased. However some still remained among the ranks of the "Unga Bunga".

Before its disappearance Gareth had left written orders to the army. The orders read " Attack at Midnight on the 15th of yellow soil". As such Hitleria and Ligma were preparing to give out orders to attack. The Vulcan Team suspected that the one to leave the orders might not have been Gareth but one of the J's in disguise. Furthermore, Hitleria confirmed that they had been losing soldiers overnight with no apparent explanation, confirming the Vulcan Team's suspicions of there being infiltrated J's among the ranks of the Ladian army.

Even so the attack would proceed as Gareth had instructed. The largest contingent of the Gliga army was found to the East, far from the beacon's location. The Ladian intellgence had indications that the leaders of the Gliga were found in this larger contingent. With this information in mind the Vulcan Team instructed the main forces of the Ladian army to attack there, in hopes that most of the army would also mobilize East leaving the beacon with fewer soldiers to protect it. Then the Vulcan Team would retrieve the beacon and hopefully join the battle on Gliga in time to turn the tides and eliminate their leaders.

Once the plan had been set the Vulcan Team retreated to their private tent to rest before the battle. There, they decided to take a slightly different route than the one announced to Hitleria in order to throw off any spies among the Ladian ranks. When midnight came the Vulcan Team, all the Tops, Palleturquoise and Preference left the camp towards the beacon.

A full moon illuminated the night, rendering the use of torches unnecessary. " A beautiful night to die."

One hour after their departure from the Ladian camp, Edgar let his Exonerated loose to rampage across the Gliga camps hoping to create further distraction. The first trouble of the nigh came as the Vulcan Team was heard by three Gliga empire soldiers, hidden in the vegetation the Vulcan Team was able to surprise them. Swiftly, Rodrik jumped from his hiding place killing the first soldier with a punch to the head, the second soldier was rendered unconscious by a strike of Edgar's hammer. Baltus however timed his strike poorly with it bouncing off the third soldiers armor, fortunately Rodrik was was able to move in on time kicking the soldiers head and killing him before he could sound the alarm. The second soldier, however, was still alive but the Vulcan Team could not afford to leave any witnesses behind, and so at Kalius command Rodrik ~~committed his second war crime~~ killed him. Upon searching their corpses the Vulcan Team found a flyer with very poorly drawn depictions of themselves (Palleturquoise was very HD tho) and a bounty of 20 000 Gp on their heads. The Gliga had been warned...

The Vulcan Team resumed their march, but soon they were spotted by more soldiers. This time the sound of alarms filled the night as many soldiers began scouring trough the forest looking for the Vulcan Team. With their stealth approach failed the Vulcan Team sprung out of their hiding place and engaged the rival soldiers. After killing some of them the rest began to retreat in fear. As the soldier retreated a formation of mafia goons appeared from the trees led by the legendary mafia boss Don Chino.

Don Chino and his goons advanced in formation to face the Vulcan Team. Rodrik rushed forward first pushing the frontline of mafia goons onto Don Chino. Standing in front of the mafia army Rodrik pointed at Don Chino and procalimed " Your life is forfeit." Don Chino however was not threatened; "My life is-a forrrfeit ooh-a? Only if you cano find me!". He then blended in with his own men and disappeared. As the battle unfolded Don Chino was caught by one of Kalius area of effect spells and killed, after the death of their leader the mafia goons lost moral and began dispersing the formations. The few that remained were killed by Baltus and Rodrik. After the battle the Vulcan Team tended to their wounded namely the Tops who were knocked unconsious during the fight.

Kalius tried to explain how the situation they were in was not easy having to fight a war and protect them at the same time, and that they should stand behind them at all times to avoid injury. Kalius further sympathized with their situation, saying it should also not be easy for them to be used as pawns in an interplanetary war. As this happened a Gliga alien suddenly appeared next to the Tops, coming from above, in an almost reflexive move Kalius crushed him to death with the use of one of his spells. The appearence of the Gliga alien made it clear to the Vulcan Team that they were being watched.

After making sure that everyone was healed and in a condition to move the Vulcan Team resumed their walk to the beacon trough the forest. All around them however the battle between the Ladian and Gliga forces unfolded, with the events of it being recorded on the SGE book. According to which two of Edgar's Exonerated had been killed and their assigned sailor girl was about to be captured. Additionally there was a gliga force seeking to intercept them on the way to the beacon coming from the east, while a Ladian force was coming from the west to help the Vulcan Team. The "Unga BUnga" were also on the move with various soldiers detected in the forests south of the beacon's location. A giant Shadow beast had also engaged the Gliga west of the Vulcan Team's location and was decimating their army.

As the Vulcan Team approached "No man's land", Rodrik asked Kichirô if he had been in a war before, to which Kichirô responded affirmatively. Rodrik asked if he had fought in them and Kichriô explained that he sustained an injury in the very first one and since then he remained as back up and dint do much. Rodrik confessed that this was his first war and that he did not have much combat experience before coming to the Ladian empire. Kichirô was surprised, stating that Rodrik looked like a veteran soldier. In that moment Rodrik relieved his life in Sotenheim, his weakness, his shame, his failures. he told Kichirô that in back in Sotenheim he was weak, to which Kichirô replied that he had come a long way since then and that he had saved them in the battle against the mafia goons. Although moved by the compliment, Rodrik once again felt his doubts plague him, "I am not like Kalius or you Kichirô." he said, "My power is borrowed, i am only strong because of this." said Rodrik touching the breastplate of his armor. " It doesnt matter where your power comes from, only how you use it, if you take a swordsman, sword away he is still a swordsman." Said Kichirô. Those words brought some peace to Rodrik's heart, even if the power wasn't is own at least he could use it to protect those who needed it. Kichirô however also stated that his connection with Kraken should be monitored to which Rodrik anwsered that he dreamed of him many times. At this point Edgar was called into the conversation to discuss the state of Rodrik's soul. When asked by Rodrik if his soul would be able to meet Soten in the after life Edgar's only anwser was "I will pray for you."

Soon after this discussion the Vulcan Team arrived at the edge of no man's land, after a quick discussion the Vulcan Team decided to rush the beacon instead of opting for a stealth approach. In order to move as fast as possible 5 tops were stacked on top of Rodrik while the remaining where put on top of Kichirô. However as soon as they set foot outside the forest multiple small refections appeared on the other side of the field indicating that the "Unga Bunga" had spotted them. The Gliga attacked with dozens of the coming from the sky to attack the Vulcan Team, now that the clouds had moved a structure could be seen in the sky floating above them, the Gliga base. As the floating base came into sight the giant Shadow Beast that had been engaged with the Gloga army took to the sky to attack the flying base. The Vulcan Team took this opportunity to move forward fighting their way trough the Gliga ranks in hopes of reaching the beacon and securing it. The Gliga posed little threat to the Vulcan Team, as they charged trough no man's land killing all the Gliga in their way.

Meanwhile in the sky above them the gigantic shadow beast rammed against the Gliga base, part of the structure disappeared on impact while the other half began to crumble. Pieces of the giant floating base began falling on top of the Vulcan Team who was still engaged with the Gliga ground troops. Focused on their battle the Vulcan Team took a while to notice that among the rubble that fell from the structure there were also disenbpdied pieces of Tops. Heads and torsos of differently colored Tops littered the ground around them. Lacking common sense Palleturquoise showed the disembodies head to the live Tops, which most likely isn't good for their mental health. Seeing the dead Tops around him Rodrik's anger grew as he killed Gliga after Gliga. From the day he ended up on the shores of this new continent he had seen more cruelty than he ever though possible. How could they, the girls were innocent, weak, they were meant to be protected. To him that's what it meant to be strong to protect those who could not protect themselves. The Gliga were weak, pathetic but Rodrik would show them the meaning of true strength.

As the base crumbled in the sky above them a blinding flash of light illuminated the night, when it vanished the base was no more and its its place a gigantic purple dragon dominated the night sky. On top of the dragon an armored Gliga seemed to be riding it. The dragon and the shadow beast charged each other, the dragon whipped his tail and with a thundering sound hit the gigantic shadow beast. Preference seemed to feel the blow as if it hit him and fell unconscious. The gigantic shadow beast was no match for the dragon and was swiftly defeated and retreated.

While the Vulcan Team gawked at the dragon Palleturquoise screamed pointing in the opposite direction of the dragon. From the east Gliga cavalry charged against them led by the great captain of the Gliga Empire Zé Bin Laden. The Vulcan Team was now trapped between the dragon who was preparing to swoop down on them and the cavalry. In a panic Edgar asked if Rodrik could throw him, but Rodrik could do much more. Looking at the dragon that charged against them Rodrik understood what he to do. Running back Rodrik pulled out his knife, for a fraction of second Rodrik looked at it pondering his decision "I will make them proud" he thought. Handing the dagger to Kichirô Rodrik said, "If i don't return send this back to Sotenheim." Grabbing Edgar Rodrik shouted, "You ready to meet Kefka?" before casting fly and taking to the sky towards the dragon. As they flew 4 harpies joined them. In the sky Edgar asked Rodrik to throw him in the dragons mouth, Rodrik agreed and said he would try to fight off the rider while Edgar did his thing.

In the ground the remaining members of the Vulcan Team prepared for the Gliga Empire cavalry charge. With Baltus taking the front lines with his conjured animals.

The dragon opened his mouth and several purple rays shot out towards them, the harpies stood in front of Rodrik tanking the hits. Two fell. Their sacrifice allowed Rodrik to wind up his throw and focusing all his might in one single arm of his armor he threw Edgar inside the dragon. The sheer force of the throw made Edgar fly trough the dragons insides before stopping in what seemed to be a pocket dimension inside the creature.

Outside the dragon Rodrik flew higher to meet the Rider.

In the ground the cavalry charge crashed onto the Vulcan Team, Baltus Elks turned into wolfs who charged trough the Gliga ranks dismounting the cavalry knights. While Kichirô and Kalius rained down spells on them.

Inside the dragon, Edgar met another Tops, a black one this time. Edgar wanted to know if there was a way to stop the dragon from the inside but the Tops was also captured and did not know. She said that they were safe in there since nothing from the outside could harm them. Edgar thought on what he could do to help his friends on the outside, something black Tops found to be cute. Edgar communicated with Baltus to try and ask Kalius for dimension breaking spells. Baltus asked if he would like to be teleported to which Edgar answered that he could not since he wanted to bring the Tops with him. The black Tops stated that she would not be so easy to take and assumed a kung fu stance. Edgar asked for a few more minutes but said to keep the teleport ready.

Outside, the dragon flew past Rodrik attempting to hit with it's tail. Rodrik dodged the attack, the armored rider attacked as well launching purple rays in his direction. Rodrik dodged those as well. Flying to catch up to the dragon Rodrik landed on the creatures back and ran up its spine to deliver a punch to the Mega Gliger. The gliga retaliated by hitting Rodrik as well, but one of the harpies took the blow for him dying in the process. Rodrik looked towards the gliga, realizing this was his fate. This fight was what he was meant to do. Win or lose tonight Rodrik would win his place besides Soten.

Beneath Rodrik and the Mega Gliger the battle between the Vulcan Team raged on. The gliga dragon was now rapidly approaching the battlefield, from the air the dragon rained  purple fire upon the Vulcan team. All the Tops and Paleturquoise were taken down by the attack.

Baltus quickly communicated to Kalius Edgar’s situation, asking the young wizard of he had any “dimension breaking spells”, fortunately he might have just that. As Kalius looked towards the charging dragon, seeing Rodrik upon its back fighting with the “Mega Gliger” he used a spell to open a dimension door between him and the dragon's mouth disappearing from the battlefield.

Meanwhile inside the dragon Edgar still did not know what he should do exactly. He tried to communicate with Baltus, asking if Rodrik was looking ok. Baltus did not answer. As he waited Edgar offered the black Tops a cookie, which she gladly accepted since as she stated it “she had always been curious about the taste”.  Then inside the pocket dimension that constituted the gliga dragons insides, Kalius appeared. Edgar asked what he has doing there, Kalius answered that the situation outside was dire, and they needed a healer. Edgar answered that they had Baltus, to which Kalius responded that he just wanted Edgar to feel important and that they were “getting the fuck out”.  Black Tops remarked that she wanted them to win since the Vulcan Team was her favorite.

Above all this on top of the dragon Rodrik’s duel continued. Rodrik attempted to grapple his foe but the Gliga was stronger and easily broke the grasp of Rodrik's spectral tentacles setting himself free. The Mega Gliger then punched Rodrik, shattering the ice armour that protected him and freezing part of his body in the process. The sheer power behind the punch shook Rodrik, who downed another mana potion and reconjured his ice armour.

On the ground, although outnumbered, the Vulcan team was able to sustain the Gliga charge, with Baltus’s spectral wolves dismounting many riders before he dispelled them to summon spirits to protect himself from the enemies that surrounded him. Kichirô on the other side of the battlefield summoned tidal waves of water that drowned many gliga empire soldiers, while trying to protect the unconscious Tops.

Busy trying to protect the Tops, the leader of the Vulcan Team barely noticed as a gwarf was catapulted from the Ladian backlines onto his side. The gwarf man after getting Kichirô’s attention informed that the whole area they were in was rigged to explode. Since the Molten Towers mercenary group had planted several explosives beneath the earth. As such they had to make for the beacon as soon as possible. The gwarf further tried to show Kichirô exactly where the explosive charges were but unfortunately, he forgot the map, with nothing more to show the gwarf became invisible and retreated.

Following the gwarf multiple mercenaries were catapulted into battle, using the superior gwarven engineering of the Molten TowersTM mercenary faction and the brave Diamond Soldiers troops. The mercenary troops led by Nomura Ryo charged into battle to aid the Vulcan Team.

Kalius on his end was about to return to the battle, as Edgar agreed to come with him. Kalius however explained that he could not bring the black Tops, the young girl sated once again that she would not let it anyway, assuming a “Kung Fu” stance. With the matter resolved, Kalius visualized the place where he had come from and teleported himself and Edgar to it.

The gliga Dragon was now right on top of the battle, and landing in the midst of it. On top of the dragon the Mega Gliger attacks Rodrik hitting him with another punch shattering the ice armour that protected him once again, the splintering ice attached itself to the Gliga further freezing him. Wounded Rodrik decided to go on the offensive, spotting Edgar below him in the battlefield he called for the move both had been working on. “Edgar!!” he shouted “Let’s do the combo!”

As they had trained Edgar cursed the Mega Gliger temporally weakening him, while Rodrik prepared himself to give is all in the next attack.

With the dragon on the ground the battle now seemed more dire than never. Although most of the Gliga cavalry was defeated more reinforcements were coming in the form of a unit led by the Gliga general Oo Be Se. The “Unga Bunga” were also preparing themselves to attack by chanting. The Vulcan Team was preparing to retreat. Edgar rushed towards the Tops that were with Kichirô to heal them. Rodrik informed Kichirô that he would not retreat just yet and would try to buy them time by facing the Mega Gliger.

With the Tops in danger, Kalius used his spells to boost his mobility in order to retreat if necessary. Baltus reamined enganed with the remaining members of Ze Bin Laden's unit. Kichirô on his side still fought to protect the Tops casting powerful water spells that drowned many gliga cavalry soldiers. Edgar moved in on the unconscious Tops healing some of them before moving on to the remaining Tops and Palleturquoise , Kichirô picked some of them up as well in an attempt to move them to safety. Kalius on his end ran to help Baltus who had been knocked unconscious by Ze Bin Laden and his troops. With Kalius help Baltus was able to get the upper hand in defeating the gliga general and most of his troops. As Edgar moved to the unconsious Tops the gliga Dragon prepared to breath fire onto the Tops once again, but was stopped by Kichirô who cancelled his magic.

Oblivious to what was going on in the ground Rodrik’s sole focus was the enemy in front of him. Using the opening from Edgar’s curse Rodrik attacked, pivoting his feet, hips and shoulders into the strike and focusing all the magic he had onto his fist. The attack connected launching the Mega Gliga flying off the dragon and onto the ground below, but Rodrik was not done. Jumping from the back of the dragon Rodrik shouted as he landed another attack on the Gliga killing him. Victorious Rodrik shouted to the skies, hoping that he could listen. His fight was not over yet as he looked around and saw that not only the dragon was still attacking but reinforcements to the Gliga were arriving.

When Edgar arrived near the unconscious Tops, the dragon tried to once again breathe fire onto them but was , once again stopped by Kichirô. The ground then beagn to shake and preference began to tremble. The giant shadow beast that had previously seen fighting the Gliga dragon, appeared again for a brief moment before disintegrating into several dark particles that flew into Preference. Preference’s body levitated absorbing all the particles before transforming into an other form, another humanoid shadow beast. Preference´s new form seemed curious about everything around him, looking attentively at Edgar and the Tops.

The dragon even without its rider kept fighting hitting Kalius and sending him flying. Rodrik engaged the dragon trying to protect his teammates. Kalius grappled the dragon tying him to the floor. While attemping to get the Tops to safety Kichirô was swarmed by yet another unit of gliga cavalry falling to the floor with the Tops.

Preference, asked Edgar if he was afraid and then feinted an attack to which Edgar flinched. The humanoid shadow beast laughed and touched an harpy beside him upojn his touch the creature transformed into a shadow beast. Prefrence the looked over to Edgar and the Tops, Edgar tried ti put himslef between the shadow beast and the Tops but was touched. A searing pain sprung for Edgar’s chest and he fell prone. The humanoid Shadow beast then began moving towards Kichiro. Still on the ground from the searing pain in his chest Edgar used mass healing word to heal all the Tops, instructing them to run away, The Tops did so being sphered by Palleturquoise. Preference neared Kichirô and touched him as well causing the old centaur to fall prone as well.

The dragon was able to break Kalius's grapple and flew away. Using this opportunity the Vulcan Team attempted to regroup and make for the beacon as fast as possible. With Rodrik aiding Baltus in defeating his last enemy and picking up Edgar who was still struggling with the pain.

"Rodrik, I think I am dying." Said Edgar.

To which Rodrik responded: "Heal yourself."

"I dont think it works that way." Said Edgar.

"Dominator"(the humanoid shadow beast who was once Preference), however had caught up to the Vulcan Team. This time he attempted to touch Kalius. In a desperate attempt to dissuade Dominator Kalius, reprimanded him: "Preference,no! We are friends." Dominator responded "No we are not."

Dominator then proceeded to touch Kalius. Kalius fell to his knees as the pain spread trough his body has did Edgar and Kichirô before him, the effect of Dominator's touch seemed to affect Kalius the most as his facial features began changing to those of a shadow beast. Kichirô tried to slow down Dominator with a water wall. The water knocked Dominator to the ground. Using this opening Rodrik ran towards Kalius and picked him up as well trying to bring both him and Edgar as far away from Dominator as possible. As they ran Rodrik urged Edgar to find a cure for whatever Dominator had did to them. Edgar replied that we has not sure what has happening, Rodrik insisted by saying he was the doctor and it was his job to figure it out. Motivated by these words Edgar used "Remove Curse" on Kalius, the spell seemed to work removing the shadow beast features in Kalius's face.

Angered by Kichirôs attack Dominator attacked back, throwing shadow spears to the Vulcan Team. These spears did not seem to do any damage but instead accelerated the shadow beast transformation. With the Vulcan Team still under attack and the threat of an explosion Rodrik had to buy some time for the retreat. He ordered Nomura to protect the Vulcan Team and charged Dominator.

Rodrik attacked the humanoid shadow beast with all that he had, his attacks damaged Dominator but also began turning Rodrik into a shadow beast with every strike he hit. As he began to lose himself to the curse Rodrik decided to retreat, grabbing Kichirô and teleporting with him near the rest of the Vulcan Team.

As the Vulcan Team struggled to regroup and fight off all the enemies Palleturquoise began panicking screaming about how it was gonna blow. She an alone in front of the Vulcan Team and used call, all members accepted being teleported near Palleturquoise. As soon as the teleport ended she threw herself on the floor covering her head.

Above them a shadow circled the battlefield, the Dragon was back. Even without a rider he attempted to take the beacon sweeping low to grab the blue and red beacons with his claws. The protectors of the beacons Kunka and her goons, abandoned the cart with Kunka running away and using dig to hide herself in a hole. Rodrik and Kalius rushed to stop the Dragon from taking off with the beacons with the pair succeeding in making the beast drop the beacons. Then the ground erupted, the blast was as if 10000 fireball scrolls had went off at the same time, chunks of rock were tossed into the air only to fall back down onto the people closest to the blast. Oo Be Se and Dominator were caught in the blast dissapreaing in a burst of flames. Several harpies and soldiers were also caught and incenerated by the force of the blast. The chunks of fiery and partially molten rock fell on the Vulcan Team, incapacitating Kichiro, the Tops , Palleturquoise and Janey Set.

Following the blast and with their chances of victory dwindling Kalius used his last charge of the Necklace, the magic within transformed him into a centaur empowered with the will of Sanekuryous. In this new form Kalius was so fast that he managed to reach the beacon before any of the Gliga empire soldiers could react. Trusting in Kalius leadership Rodrik focused on what he could do, healing one of the Tops while calling for Edgar to heal the rest. Unfortunately there was no salvation for Blue Tops, the force of the boulders had ripped her body apart, well beyond any salvation possible. Rodrik and the remaining Tops gathered around the body. "Why? Why were always the weak who suffered the most? They had brought her here to protect her and she died because of it. Why couldn't he protect everyone, like Soten did. Why wasn't he strong enough?" But Rodrik could not despair now, the remaining Tops and the Vulcan Team still counted on him, and so while there was still breath in his lungs and blood in his veins he would fight.

The purple dragon was still alive, seemingly unbothered by the gigantic explosion that just occurred. Seeing Kalius rush towards the beacon the dragon roared and turned towards it. However it quickly realized that he could not race Kalius, instead he turned back to the remaing members of the Vulcan Team and attacked. His magical fire incapacitated Kichirô once again. The terrifed Tops asked Rodrik what they should do. Rodrik awnsered that they would mourn their fallen friend later and for now they should group behind him, Rodrik further instructed Edgar to take the Tops and run away from the lava and into the right in order to meet Kalius as soon as he returned.

Kalius on the other end of the battlefield managed to get to the beacon, the alien construct however was heavy and even with Centaurions speed and power he could only move it at a fraction of his normal speed. The purple dragon roared once again towards Kalius and a blinding green light came down from the sky striking the woman leading the Gliga empire soldiers, when the light faded her form was revealed to have turned into a green Gliga dragon. Kalius ignored the beast opting to run as fast as we could trough the Gliga lines his mighty form stampeded the Gliga soldiers crushing them beneath his hooves. The Green Gliga Dragon (GGD) tried to stop him by attacking but not only was Kalius now imune to its green fire it was also able to dodge his many attacks.

Rodrik decided to engage the Purple dragon using fly on himself to get close to it he was followed by Blackand Nomura who also rushed to attack the Dragon. Before any of them could attack the creature beat his wings breaking Rodrik's concentration on the spell and knocking him and Black prone and incapacitating Nomura. Edgar, Kichirô and Palleturquoise herded the Tops away from the dragon while Baltus ran in to face it as well. Despite his spell being broken Rodrik attacked he dragon nonetheless jumping in the air and kicking its wing. The Dragon beat his wings once again making Rodrik fall to his knees once more. Rodrik got up once again and jumped on top of the purple dragon, furiously attacking his right wing in an attempt to ground the beast. Once Rodrik was on top of it the Dragon shifted his focus to the rest of the Vulcan Team attacking them with his purple fire.

Kichirô was incapacitated once again, his injuries mounting as he was attacked again and again. All around them the battle seemed lost, despite Kalius's stampede the Gliga army still severely outnumbered the Vulcan Team, their reinforcements had been killed. Nomura the last of the mercenaries sent as reinforcements laid dead on the battlefield still holding his red sword as if at any moment we would rise to fight again.

Rodrik fought will all he could, but the dragon seemed to barely fell his blows, Edgar could barely keep up with the causalities the dragon inflicted. Fortunately Baltus has able to distract the dragon even for a few second turning is attention away from the injured Vulcan Team. Kalius finally arrived dragging the green beacon but also bringing the Green dragon with him. As the beacons got closer they began to move on their own being dragged towards each other.

Despite Kalius arrival the Vulcan Team situation was as dire as ever. Both dragons were now attacking the Vulcan Team, from the top of the Purple Dragon Rodrik shouted to Kalius: "What are your orders?". "Slay the dragons then protect the beacons!" answered Kalius. In his heart Rodrik knew that this task was beyond his ability, but to him that did not matter he would keep fighting. "It will be an honor to die by your side." Rodrik anwsered.

With the beacons slowly approaching each other, Baltus jumped onto the green beacon and using magic caused the ground to shake speeding up the movement of the alien artifacts.

The purple dragon turned his head backwards biting Rodrik in the arm, as the dragon's teeth sinked into his body Rodrik felt a surge of energy run trough him. The magic from the attacks he had suffered had been building up inside him. Looking at Kalius Rodrik said: "Do you wanna see the only magic i was ever able to do?" before letting all the stored energy out into a magical blast. Before the wreck Rodrik could not do even the simplest of spells, however we could absorb the magical energy of spells cast upon him and release it. The blast hit both dragons, however the creatures seemed unphased.

As the beacons came into contact with each other they fused and began spinning with so much speed that the individual parts could no longer be distinguished. As the beacons spun, the Tops urged Edgar to leave as something was coming and they would not want to be there when it arrived. However the battle around them raged on and with nowhere to run the Vulcan Team had no choice but to keep fighting.

The battle against the dragons was fierce, but by their combined efforts the Vulcan Team felled them both. After the death of the Purple Gliga Dragon black Tops emerged from the pocket dimension she had been hiding in. With the dragons gone the battle was still far from over as the Gliga army charged towards the beacon. In the brief moments they had before the Gliga army charged crashed onto them the Vulcan Team sought to regroup and discuss their next actions. However, they found Kichirô lying in the battlefield with part of his skull missing. As the oldest member of the Vulcan Team drew his final breaths the rest of the members gathered around him. In his final moments Kichirô expressed how proud he was of the Vulcan Team and what it had accomplished. Rodrik promised him they would make him proud and held his hand placing his dagger on it so Kichirô would die a warriors death. Even with one of their members dead there was no time for for mouring, the Vulcan Team rose to their feet ready to face the incoming charge. Baltus took the SG ring from Kichirô's hand and threw it to Rodrik who placed it on his finger. Kalius ordered for the Vulcan Team to protect the beacon form the Gliga. The beacon itself meanwhile had stopped spinning and opened each of its colored sides, all of the Tops began walking towards it but only the green and red were allowed in all the others were repelled by a magical force. Despite the colored Tops entering the beacon nothing happended. Black Tops remarked that there were still enemies left. Palleturquoise then took a fireball scroll and used it underneath the beacon, a scream has heard and from underneath the beacon crawled Janey Set before succumbing to the injuries and transforming into a J. Black Tops then spoke congratulating the Vulcan Team on winning. She said that they were missing one Tops but since they did so well she would help. Black Tops extended her hand towards Mangenta and Cyan Tops, the two girls began levitating towards Black Tops and when she clenched her fist the two were smashed in a gory and disturbing scene. What was left from the two Tops began gaining a new form and eventually a new Blue Tops emerged from the remains of the other two. The new Blue Tops walked towards the beacon and entered it. At this point most of the battle had been halted not only due to the Black Tops announcement but also due to the large dark figure that could now be seen in the night sky.

Unbeknownst to Rodrik however an emergency meeting of the eyes of the SGE was called. The Lads were about to unleash something that would consume a great amount of mana from the SGE pool, the meeting was held to decide if the pool should be shut down to prevent injury to the Sailor Girls but almost certainly killing those in the warzone or if the pool would remain active and incur madness on all sailor girls. Kalius and Palleturquoise voted against shutting down the pool and with the votes from Hitleria, ???, Blitzhard and ??? also in favor of the pool remaining active the vote was passed.

In light of the new SGE decision a waring was emitted to all sailor girls, advising them to restrain themselves due to the madness that was sure to come. Due to his partner Kichiro, being dead Rodrik did not hear the warning, but he still restrained Edgar on Kalius orders despite his confusion. Black Tops the urged the Vulcan Team to enter the beacon which they complied with Rodrik dragging Kichiro's body inside as well. Black also tried to enter the beacon but she was repelled by a magical force. Soon everything around the beacon was crushed by the enormous dark creature that crashed onto the battlefield with apparently only the Vulcan team and the Tops escaping without injury. As the beacon travelled trough what looked like to be the creatures innards the Tops began feeling weak. When the Vulcan Team tried to help they said there was nothing to be done since their goal was complete they had nothing else to live for and therefore would die. Rodrik apologized for not being able to save them to which Red Tops responded that she was the one that was sorry because she did not vote for him and instead voted for Stromboli. After all the Tops died the beacon seemngly exited the creature and landed on top of a hill on a large open field. Besides the beacon only a house and tree could be seen with the remaining land being grasslands as far as the eye could see.

#### The weapon

The Vulcan Team exited the beacon carefully examining their surroundings, since Black Tops allured to them having to fight for the fate of their world. From the small wooden house a familiar figure emerged, Kichiro walked out completely healed of all his injuries. The Vulcan Team rushed towards their friend happy to seem him alive once again. Kichiro's appearance however brought a dark thought, they were not really alive. They had been merely brought there to participate in the end game and just as with everything they had ever known they were dead. The Vulcan Team asked Kichiro if he remembered anything but his memories seemed clouded with the Vulcan Team having to remind him that he had died. After a brief moment another familiar figure appeared, Stromboli. Stromboli's last memories were of fighting her mother with her having no recollection of how she ended up where she was. She almost instantly asked about the Tops and the Vulcan Team had to deliver the hard news that they were dead. This greatly affected Stromboli who walked away from the Vulcan Team to be alone, lying down on the grass and gazing up at the sky

After some discussion the Vulcan Team decided that there wasn't much to do besides waiting for the eventual battle that they would be faced with. Rodrik asked Kalius if he could have a word with the Vulcan Team to which he agreed.

Rodrik removed his helmet to reveal his face, his hair was covered with sweat and blood and his face tired as if he hadn't slept in days.

"During the time I was with you I saw things that i never thought possible, I saw people with strength that i only assumed existed in legend and during this time it has been an honor for me to be able to fight by your side. To be able to fight alongside such great and honorable warriors. But now we face our toughest challenge yet. Everything we knew, everything we love is gone killed by the black serpent, and it befalls on us to bring it back. There is no one else to count on now, we are were and we will bring everything back. By taking everything from us the snake may think it made us weak, but it hasn't. It made us stronger, because now we have nothing to lose and nothing his most frightening that someone who has nothing to lose. We will fight and we will win because we fight for our friends for our families for our world, and even if we lose and die we will sit besides Soten for eternity".

Palleturquoise clapped at Rodrik's speech, Edgar once again complained about Soten, and all agreed they would fight until the end to get their world back.

Shortly after the speech a ~~loli~~ young girl appeared, she introduced herself as Numo and happily stated that they were all inside her. She looked like a ghost with a see trough body that sometimes seemed to flicker in and out of existence. She happily explained that they were all in there because they were hero's and she wished to see them develop and perform heroic deeds. She even went as far as call Rodrik a "superhero" and even though Rodrik felt pride in being called that he decided not to give in to the flaterry of someone who was clearly their enemy.

Numo then noticed that there were seven of them and since she did not like uneven numbers she told everyone to think of someone they would wish to bring here and fight alongside of. Rodrik though of Gareth, Kichiro and Kalius of Dundee, Edgar of Geopolitical and Baltus of ???(help tabi). However as they were concentrating in the person they would like to bring Palleturquoise asked Stromboli who she was thinking of. Both Baltus and Rodrik were close enough to hear Stromboli answer Talim which in turn made them think of Talim briefly. Due to this Nomu summoned Talim stating that she was the one most people thought of. The sight of Talim enraged Rodrik, his anger was further heightened by Talim's apparent lack of memory as to what made them hostile to her. Rodrik exploded asking her if she did not remember murdering innocents and rampaging trough Ladtown. Rodriks fury was only placated when Kalius ordered him to stand down.

After that Nomu explained that they would be facing a series of trials to test how heroic they could be. She then told the Vulcan Team to head for the tree next to the house. Before their eyes the tree transformed into a large white tower with a spiral staircase coiling around it towards the sky. Nomu told the Vulcan Team to climb the stairs and that their first challenge would await.

The Vulcan Team climbed the tower and soon found themselves in what seemed to be the inside of a volcano. The several bridges connected small islands of rock which were above a lava lake. Numo appeared once again and pointed at one of the distant stone islands. There a black Tops stood, Numo stated that their goal was to rescue the Tops before the time ran out. Numo had barely ended her sentence and Black Tops was already by their side. In an instant Kalius still imbued with the power of Centurion ran across the air to the Tops and brought her back. Numo was very pleased praising Kalius for his deed.

Since the task was completed so quickly Numo asked them to "Kill them all" and summoned Crença as well as many of her previous allies. The succubi Vern Warm and Iha tlife seemed surprised to see Crença back however they immediately took her side stating that the Vulcan Team was "so dead". However the Vulcan Team had significantly increased in power since their last meeting, Kalius and Baltus rushed towards Crença, Edgar and Kichiro remained back and attacked Crença with ranged spells while Rodrik protected them by fighting off the Mister M and The Real Mister M. After witnessing the damage that the Vulcan Team dealt to Crença in such a small amount of time Vern and Iha turned coat once again. Attacking her previous allies, Rodrik attacked them anyway attempting to throw Vern from the ledge and into the lava, she evaded him and locked him into a cage asking him "Not to touch her". Rodrik ignored and attacked her 2 more times making her spit blood, Iha reveled in the sight saying " I can finally see you in pain". However despite Rodrik desperately wanting to finish both Iha and Vern for what they did to RiverSpring. But Kalius finished of Crença and Numo dispeled the rest of the enemies as she assumed the battle would be won by the Vulcan Team. Rodrik was angered by the fact that he could not avenge RiverSpring.

After Numo dispelled all enemies another tower with a spiral staircase appeared and once again the Vulcan Team ascended it. As they emerged from the stairs the Vulcan Team was met with a espetacular sight. In front of them gigantic buildings reached for the sky like glowing pillars. Strange vehicles crossed the sky back and forth carrying people and goods. The sight stunned the Vulcan Team for a moment, until Baltus spotted the symbol of Infinite's people, the Stentor. The Vulcan Team asked themselves if the people were still alive or not or if they were mere recreations made by Numo. Rodrik decided to ask nearby people about the world, in order to understand the language Kalius gave everyone a potion that allowed them to speak anda understand all languages. After inquiring some citizens Rodrik realized that their questions were making them a sight of suspicion as there was worry of them being spies of a rival faction. Something that Infinite had mentioned. Baltus discovered a gigantic poster of Tops, which in this world was named "Miss Landing Spot". Rodrik uncovered that Tops was actually a super star and widely famous across the Stentor empire. Numo showed up once again and told them to do what heroes do "rescue the princess". As such the Vulcan Team trough the art of asking random people discovered which city was Tops in and in which direction to go.

Trying to fit in the Vulcan Team headed for a device that would transport them to a platform above them were ships were leaving in the direction of the city Tops was in. However they had, a horse man, a wolf man and a bird dude with them and that did not go unnoticed. The entire Vulcan team could not fit in the ~~elevator~~ levitation device at once on the account of Kichiro being half horse. After Rodrik, Kalius and Baltus entered the levitation device, Kichiro and Edgar were approached by two guards wearing the same armor that Geopolitical whore. The guards began questioning them about their appearance mainly the fact that Edgar was using the glasses akin to that of their enemy. Edgar replied that he was augmented and after that failed to appease the guards began pretending to trade stocks with a handheld communication device. In the midst of the confusion the levitation device returned and Edgar and Kichiro entered it before the guards could take them in. On the other side of the levitation device Rodrik was furiously pressing the buttons in order to go back down to help Edgar in Kichiro but ceased as soon as he saw the exit the device.

Now in the hangar from where the ships departed the Vulcan Team noticed that at the entrance of the ships two guards scanned each persons arm, the Vulcan Team assumed that there would be some kind of ticket system involved and once again asked for the help of a random citizen which directed them to a nearby booth were they could get their tickets. At first the Vulcan Team though they would not be able to buy the tickets since they did not have local money. However the economy system in this world was based on personal revenue and since the Vulcan Team had no revenue the tickets were free. At first the lady at the booth questioned how did they not have any revenue but Rodrik discarded the question with there being "rough times" and "deaths in the family". With their tickets secured the Vulcan Team embarked the ship and left for the next city.

Two months passed before the Vulcan Team could locate the Tops, during those two months they found everything they required was free, housing, food and healthcare since they did not have any revenue. After the two months the Vulcan Team received intel that Tops would be in a parking lot with almost no security, this was their time to act. The Vulcan Team staked the location for many hours before Tops showed up with 3 bodyguards. The plan was that Rodrik would approach posing as a fan of Tops and once he was in range Kalius would attack with fireballs avoiding Rodrik and Tops. Talim disagreed and said that "she would do no such thing" and began walking towards Tops. Rodrik grabbed and pushed back ordering her to "Stand down and do what she was told." Even after two months of ~~hot steamy sex~~ being around her Rodrik still could not forgive her for what she had done to Ladtown and its people.

Following the plan Rodrik approached Tops saying loudly " Is that Miss Landing Spot! I am such a big fan! Can I have an autograph?". The Tops guards ordered Rodrik to stop but after confiding with Tops for a while allowed hit to approach. Once Rodrik was close enough he used his tentacles to grapple one of the guards while Kalius double fireballed the area. Talim attempted to interpose herself between the spell and the guards and when that failed to spot it she called the Vulcan Team cowards. The largest of the bodyguards ignored Rodrik and teleported towards the origin of the spell and began attacking the Vulcan Team. The largest bodyguard began charging a weapon and used it on Talim reducing her to ashes in seconds. Rodrik finished off the weaker bodyguards while the rest of the Vulcan Team contended with the strongest one. The bodyguard began charging the weapon once again and Rodrik dragged Tops behind the car to protect her. However another weapon was shot from a roof nearby hitting Tops clean in the head killing her but leaving Rodrik unharmed, the bodyguard's weapon went off a millisecond later killing the wielder of the second weapon. For a second everything went silent until Rodrik rose from behind the car and proclaimed "We failed". While the Vulcan Team argued about what to do next a white coiling staircase martialized itself in the area where Tops died. A young blond woman began walking towards it ignoring the Vulcan Team as she went across. Rodrik called out to her, asking her who she was and where she was going. At first she seemed surprised that they could see her, but quickly opened up to them her name was Isten Oslo and she explained that in that world no one could see her and that she had been looking for Tops for 60 years to kill her. Explaining that that was how you ascended the tower. In her own world the white staircases also appeared and she went up one of the getting stuck in this new world until she could find Tops and kill her. The Vulcan Team decided to join forces with the woman. As they ascended the newly formed staircase Numo appeared once again, she seemed happy that the Vulcan Team made it. However they confronted her about the goal being killing the Tops and not protecting her as she had told them. Numo laughed and told them that she thought it would be a "Cool reveal". Numo also told the Vulcan Team that only one of them would be able to make it to the top, before disappearing.

Burdened with the knowledge that most likely they would die in this mission the Vulcan Team resumed their ascent.

Once at the top of the stairs the Vulcan Team was once again met with a astonishing sight. Before them as far as the eye could see there was a forest, but not alike any other forest they had seen before. The trees were almost three times taller and they resembled mushrooms. The entire forest seemed to glow with red, blue and green. On the horizon the Vulcan Team could see yet another staircase. Isten remarked that someone should have already killed the Landing spot in that world. From the perspective of the Vulcan Team many months passed as they transversed deserted worlds to climb the staircase. Thought this time they saw the world of the gliga and the gewa as well as many other deserted worlds home of what appeared to be lost civilizations.

During their many months of travel Rodrik became increasingly aware that is fate was approaching and wondered if he would have the strength to do what was right. One night he sought Edgar and confided in him.

"Do you think Kefka can make mistakes." Rodrik asked.

"No. Do you think nature makes a wrong three?" said Edgar

"I see." Rodrik reached into his belt and drew his knife handing to Edgar. The knife wasn't really a knife but a broken spear head. "That belonged to my older brother Hafi, he died in the boat wreck. But I lived, why Edgar? He was better than me always was. When I decided I wanted to participate in the trials of fog he came with me so i would be safe, and when I failed the first trial he stayed behind with me, although he had the strength to win. When I decided to embark on the boat and leave Sotenheim he came with me as well to keep me safe he said. He was a better warrior, a better man and a better son and still he died and I lived."

"You are worthy of this life, you saved a lot of people and you are strong now."

"Do you think he would be proud Edgar?"

"I don't know your brother but I am proud of you Rodrik."

Edgar's words uplifted Rodrik's spirit.

After around 6 months while yet again climbing the white coiling staircase Numo appeared. Kalius complained to her that there were no heroics happening and that they only had been walking for ages. Isten asked who they were talking too and when Rodrik tried to answer Numo intervened asking as well who he was talking too. Realizing that both Numo and Isten could not see each other and deciding to keep that a secret from Numo they pretended to be talking telepathically with Kalius demonstrating by turning his back, raising 9 fingers and asking Palleturquoise to guess how many fingers, which she did correctly. Satisfied with the answer Numo anwsered Kalius and agreed that things were pretty boring but assured them that they were about to get better and they had to keep going. Still grumbling about the walking Kallius and the rest of the Vulcan Team resumed climbing the stairs.

Once they reached the top of the stairs things became distorted for the Vulcan Team as if they got enveloped in a thick fog, their memory failed them and they could not remember were they were or what they were supposed to do.

Kalius was transported to Ladtown, only to find it destroyed. In the center square Koltar had been hanged and all around him dead bodies littered the floor including the body of princess Euler. Kalius could barely deal with the sight, ran back to the Vulcan Team house and lay in his bed for a week hoping it all to be a nightmare.

Kichiro was transported back to his homeland were he appeared before his family's ancestral home, however no one seemed to recognize him. The noble of this land was now Inosuke Banoske. After some investigating Kichiro found that his son had been killed, saddened by his death Kichiro sat under a tree and wept.

Edgar was transported to Ladtown as well but to him the city and the entire Ladian empire had been hit by a terrible plague. Lady Euler was laying on the floor deadly sick, coughing almost constantly. Edgar immediatly assumed his role as medic and did his best to try and save the survivors of the plague.

Baltus was transported to the ancestral home of his clan, however when he tried to approach it he was denied entry. The guards of the clan claimed that he had been banished for being a traitor. Angered by this Blatus left and sought another place to call his home.

Rodrik was transported back to Sotenheim to the village where he was born. Despite knowing the village well Rodrik barely recognized it as it was mostly in ruins and covered in snow. A little kid approached Rodrik and asked him who he was, Rodrik said his name but the kid did not recognize him. He explained that Sotenheim had been hit by terrible blizzards and mostly of it was destroyed and the king had died. From Rodrik's village only four people remained, despite his sadness Rodrik knew these people needed him and so he did his best to help them rebuild any sort of life they might have had.

Once again the Vulcan Team was reunited and they all realized that they just had experienced their worst nightmare, most likely another machination of Numo. This was further confirmed when she appeared before them and promptly evaporated Stromboli for not even trying in her nightmare. Numo the called for their attention to an illusion she cast in front of them. The illusion was a board with four categories "Heroics", "Cool", "Passion", "Numo's fun facts" and "Weapon Fun Facts". Each category had 5 cards worth different points behind each card there was a question and if they anwsered correctly they would earn the points in the card. Thought the game the Vulcan Team learned that Numo was actually the original Tops asdn was a hero at some point but she could barely remember that time. Due to her boredom Numo sent out parts of herself throughout the universe to live out her fantasies, she also liked to collect planets.

The Vulcan Team also learned that the what they called "cyan eyed snake" wasnt actually Numo, instead it was a weapon called the "World Sized Worm" a mindless creature that rampages unless a parasite takes over via ingestion and fusion of its "magic center". At the moment, Numo is controlling it. The weapon is able to sneakily shrink worlds down and put them inside its own pocket dimension without any inhabitants noticing, and the aliens that invaded Amurel were trying to intercept the weapon that shrunk and ingested their respective planets while they were outside, find out more about it and take control of it. The planets however were not destroyed only shrunk in such a way that nobody inside the atmosphere notices. Then they are safely kept inside the Weapons pocket dimension. These planets were the ones the Vulcan Team had transferred in the months prior. Finally and perhaps the most important piece of information they learned how to defeat Numo and the weapon they needed to figure out where the magic center was and eat it.

After the gameshow was over and the points had been attributed, Numo disintegrated Palleturquoise under the pretense that she did not participate in the game and therefore lost. Before the Vulcan Team could react they were transported yet to another room. This new room was empty save for seven stands that held miniature versions of planets, behind said stands specimens from each planet were trapped behind glass cases. Numo looked at the stands, particularly at the last one which showed Amurel and said that she would like to replace her specimen. With a wave of her hand Palleturquoise appeared once again before her while the person behind the glass disintegrated.

While all this happened Isten, looked confused at the Vulcan Team. She kept asking what they were looking to and mentioned that she felt that something was there but she could not see it. Numo remained oblivious to Isten's existence even as she approached her. Isten now right next to Numo mentioned that there was a blue floating orb right in front of her and asked if she should attack it. Rodrik nodded yes and Isten with a swing of her sword cut the orb in half, for a second Numo seemed to fell something as she trembled in and out of existence for a moment. Isten said that she felt like she should eat the orb and so she did. As Isten consumed the orb, her and Numo merged in a flash of light from that light Tops of all colors appeared including black tops. Black Tops commanded the other Tops to protect her but Rodrik advanced on her and delivred a powerful punch. Black Tops disappeared and, in her place, a small blue orb appeared floating in the air. Remembering the game, they had just played Rodrik took the orb and ate it.

In an instant Rodriks senses were expanded beyond everything he thought possible, he could sense every planet that the weapon ate and within every planet he could sense everyone. The consumption of the orb had given him full control over the weapon, but that control came with a horrible realization. He could stop it, he could stop the weapon from eating his world but in order to do that he had to force it into a dormant state meaning he would be trapped inside the weapon forever as its guardian. It was however too late to stop it from crashing onto the battlefield as such if even if he released the remaining members of the Vulcan Team they would only have a few seconds of life before the weapon crashed onto them and killed them.

With pain in his eyes Rodrik turned to his fellow members of the Vulcan Team, trough the months that he passed with them they had become his friends, the closest he had ever had. Tears threatened to pour from his eyes but Rodrik remained strong.

“I can stop it.” He spoke. “I can save everyone, but it will cost all our lives. In exchange for our lives, we can save the world.”

“What?” Said Edgar.

“I can stop the weapon from devouring our world, but I can’t stop it from crashing into it. I can take you back to the moments before it crashed but you most likely won’t be able to escape and will jave to stay behind forever to guard it.”

For some time, the Vulcan Team searched for ways of all of the escaping the fate that waited them. Palleturquoise suggested that Rodrik trade with Kichirô since he was already dead in real life. Rodrik answered that he would not deny Kichirô an afterlife with his wife and that this was his burden to carry. Kichirô placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t think I can let you do this.” He said.

“I would not be able to live with myself if you didn’t.” Answered Rodrik.

Rodrik hugged Edgar and told him that we wouldn’t be able to see if Kefka or Soten where real after all. Edgar answered that he would that they would find a way to free him. Rodrik smiled and then gave one last look at the Vulcan Team.

“I think we all agree on what must be done.” He said extending his hand to the centre of the group. Once everyone place their hand on his Rodrik released the Vulcan Team back to the world.

Alone in the dark Rodrik took out his spear and for a second remembered Sheeva and how he failed his promise to comeback. He planted it on the ground between his feet and looked forwards, focusing to turn the weapon to its dormant state. Before the darkness consumed him Rodrik whispered “I did it Hafi, I made my life be worth something.”

Outside the weapon the Vulcan Team was once again inside the beacon, Rodrik’s body fell into a coma like state. With the weapon approaching Kalius put Rodrik’s body in his bag of holding while Edgar collected Kichirô’ body. Then in their heads a voice sounded, “Please say yes”. Edgar and Kalius knowing it was a SGE call immediately consented. Baltus however felt like his purpose had been fulfilled and yearned for the hunting grounds as such he denied the call and stayed behind. One call was not enough to get them out of the range of the weapon and multiple sailor girls were used to call the Vulcan Team to just outside the blast radius of the explosion. Once the final sailor girl completed her call the weapon crashed onto the battlefield anything it the area and creating a large crater.

Now safe the weight of everything that happened with the last remaining members of the Vulcan Team, Edgar hugged Rodriks dagger.

“Why are we the only one left Kalius, I was the only one ok with dying, why I am still here?”

“I don’t know.” Said Kalius.

The Sailor girls rushed towards Kalius and Edgar and warned them that a lot of madness would come soon and that they should take of their rings to avoid harming themselves. Kalius and Edgar looked to the crater and remembered their fallen allies one last time before removing their rings and falling unconscious.