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--- legend_of_the_ark [2026/05/20 18:12] – [End of Chapter: Heaven And Earth, And The King On His Throne] spiffgent
+++ legend_of_the_ark [2026/05/20 18:23] (current) – [End of Chapter: Heaven And Earth, And The King On His Throne] spiffgent
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 The party pursued through Poteyenheim, Gilvalur's Workshop, and Elfori, encountering Moira's angel door shortcuts at each turn, until they found the passage through stone allowing her access to the laboratory beneath. With no way through, Keith attempted to dig through the stone (aided by Cairo's golden lions) as others tried to deduce everything they could about the angel doors, with Cairo and Rioux and Callie failing to make any traction. At Keith's suggestion, they sought the mausoleum full of Angel doors, and realised that they were arranged in a perfect grid, and that Moira could reveal one at any point whenever she liked to cover her tracks and bore passages. As they dug, Cairo resigned themselves to reading Ahmic scripture, inadvertently opening the door with the name of //Bahamut//. They followed into the Elven chamber beyond, where the Coarctation beat quietly.
-Keith attempted to destroy it at Aristotle's command, but failed to dent it. Moira stepped out of the shadows and revealed that she had already tried, and that the Angel Doors seemed to be some kind of Elven containment mechanism around the Poteus Ark, a backup for the chronomancy. Keith listened but only had eyes for destroying the heart: he struck it and struck it as Rioux failed to stop him and Callie frustrated Cairo's own intercession. Neither Keith nor Otto were able to leave a single scratch on it: at Aristotle's command, Keith gave over his hammer to Moira, who was able to damage the Coarctation with righteous rage. This triggered the sanctuary's defences, a shadowy titan that instantly evaporated those struck by its weapon. Keith and Moira were struck first, and while Callie and Rioux were able to keep away and inflict genuine harm on it, they too quickly fell.
+Keith attempted to destroy it at Aristotle's command, but failed to dent it. Moira stepped out of the shadows and revealed that she had already tried, and that the Angel Doors seemed to be some kind of Elven containment mechanism around the Poteus Ark, a backup for the chronomancy. Keith listened but only had eyes for destroying the heart: he struck it and struck it as Rioux failed to stop him and Callie frustrated Cairo's own intercession. Neither Keith nor Otto were able to leave a single scratch on it: at Aristotle's command and after his failed persusaion of the others, Keith gave over his hammer to Moira, who was able to damage the Coarctation with righteous rage. This triggered the sanctuary's defences, a shadowy titan that instantly evaporated those struck by its weapon. Keith and Moira were struck first, and while Callie and Rioux were able to keep away and inflict genuine harm on it, they too quickly fell.
 Keith, Callie and Otto awoke in a drizzling field, next to a huge manor. Within was Otto's Akselian teacher, Friedrich Durchdenwalf, seemingly awaiting him for the first time. They duelled, and Otto showed his surprising prowess, before the Demon of Bahamut burst in, quickly fighting them again and killing Friedrich. Cairo and Rioux appeared in a Light-blessed cave on the eve of Cairo's baptism into the Light, but tried to put this aside them as they explored their new Hollowsmerian surroundings. An Elven missionary led Cairo to the cave (with the guards convinced by Rioux's new vestments), but all convivialities were interrupted by the Demon's arrival, alongside an avalanche. It was being weakened, however, by Keith's armour, Otto's gunshots, Callie's blasts, Rioux's strikes, and Cairo's necrotics spells, the latest of which caused a permanent mark on its voided figure.
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 Rioux and Otto appeared outside the outskirts of Taronsawk, and Rioux tried to explain how they had managed to choose their destination. Moira had also appeared alongside them, covered in blood and grime, and tried to attack before the Demon appeared once again. Callie had chosen to travel to the moment of their meeting with the rest of the party, and Cairo and Keith were drawn into it as well, quickly earning the attacks of the paranoid past adventurers before the Demon burst out once more. Cairo convinced his past self to attack it, but was attacked himself once he ran out of luck: the Chronophage tore past Keith in half under similar encouragement, allowing the prime Jean-Luc to recover a copy of the warhammer he had given to Moira. They all accepted their next hits, and all decided to arrive at the same place: the Coarctation, in the present.
+Keith drew the warhammer, and finally found his spine, demanding concessions of Aristotle for the shit he had gone through. Aristotle showed genuine outrage and fear as, one by one, the party backed up Keith against his cruel patron — only for his first and final hammer swing to prove only that they had ignored Moira's presence. She swung her own warhammer at the Coarctation, and the world blazed white as it shattered.
+----
+//Out steps the figure that had been appearing before them multiple times already, that of Rex Anfang Akselmarch, the Emperor. He thanks them for their efforts, and wonders, given how much he has already achieved trapped in stasis, how much he can now achieve unleashed.//
+----
+The sanctuary began to rumble, and Keith forced Moira to lead them out. The earthquakes buried the Demon of Bahamut and, when they emerged in Poteyenheim to stop Rex Anfang from reaching the Ark, another tremor knocked it off its plinth, proving the time trap around it had ended. Rioux naturally scooped it up, and the party elected to return to Taronsawk, lacking anywhere else to go. Rioux locked the Ark in the Storeroom on the way: but when the party arrived they arrived to an aftermath, with all of the townsfolk either dead or escaped in a petty battle that they had missed. An Akselian Feldjaeger sat by a banner, confused that there was no one to surrender to: the Fourth Lehtion was badly running out of supplies, and needed to ally itself with powers beyond the wall to survive. Otto sent him on his way and then translated the encounter: the realisation that Akselmarch was never going to attack broke Moira, and Rioux had to lead her away, sobbing to her house, before glumly returning.
+The only matter left was that of the Ark. Rioux and Cairo both wanted to physically take it away, while Keith had been taken advantage of to release the Akselian Rex. Otto and Keith did, however, think it was best for them to open it, secluded, instead of allow it to be opened by anyone else: a plan that Rioux assented to after a prayer to Ahm. Cairo resisted, but the monk snapped the box open in the church before anyone could react, revealing it to be absolutely plain, bare, and empty. As Aristotle helpfully informed Keith, whatever treasures and curses it contained within had already been taken by Andren Bazat decades ago — and nothing could have ever come of their quest.
+Cairo wrote of these events to their Light clade, while Rioux through mad laughs remained in the church, praying. Keith, Otto, and Callie left, to continue burying the dead, utterly unsure of where to go next.