This Topic is for Team One (Maude, Kamille, Edward) to reply to the main Sol Stone topic.

Edward takes a moment to regain his focus. One moment, he was in the temple, ready to fight one of the most infamous criminals in the whole of Charon. In the next, he was in a bizarre space and is about to be blasted to hell by a so called god. Edward isn’t particularly religious but he still doubts the credibility of Scern’s words. Even so, he needs to do something to protect his friends. 

Edward shouts at Kamille and Maude, “It seems we need to buy time! Let’s try to fight a god long enough to allow that piece of shite to get us out of here!” Edward then mutters words of power, with radiant light smoking out of his mouth and spiraling around the group of three. The golden smoke swirls around them before solidifying into a dome of light covering the three of them.¹

Edward then begins to chant in a different language of power, the language of the spirits. Blue smoke shots from his mouth and towards the massive, indescribable of the god. The smoke dashes around the “skin” of the god and constricts around it.²

---

1) Circle of Life (Defense Action): You create a small magical ring around you that protects your person and anyone standing next to you. As long as you are standing in this circle you and anyone else inside of it will be protected from taking damage. This prevents any wound that would come from an attack by a weapon or spell, regardless of its type. This ring will move with your person and last for two post. (This can only be cast once per topic)
2) Desperation (Debuff Action): By pointing at a target, Your target suddenly feels starving, badly dehydrated, mana-deprived and fatigued, as though they are on their last legs. They will struggle with normal everyday functions and will find it incredibly hard to focus, ignoring their ability to cast spells or even make offensive attacks. Lasts for a post, at which point they are returned to the condition they started in before Desperation was cast. Can only be used twice per topic.

Edward has the brain helmet, which is why he can cast without hands.

Ziev.

While most of the Gods still held a place of either hatred or contempt in her heart, Ziev was one that she had believed to chose to truly bless her with his power. Ziev was possibly the one opening the way for a change of heart, and now.......

Now he came down upon the group to crush them.

Everything happened so fast.... In a matter of moments, the cultist Scern, who was clearly their oposition as he reached for the stone and warped their reality, claimed to have a way out of this situation they couldn't entirely grasp. There was no time for half measures.

Extending her hands by her sides, sparks and fire gathered at her palms, taking the shape of balls of pure fire. She joined them in a bigger, massive fireball before her, that she promptly launched right at this so called God of Time and Space [1]. She didn't have a clue how to fight a God, she needed to know how much of her spells would be useless... or not?

It dawned on her that the person that might know something more was right before them. Scern. The Witch would've found it absurd that Fate would put her in the same space as Scern, if one was to tell her that a moment ago. And yet, here they were.

"I hope you're not lying to us. Is there anything that you know that can help us?"

Instead of waiting for the answer, Kamille walked back to Scern, placing a hand on his arm and focusing for a moment to try and quickly get out of his mind the answers she needed [2].

The Black Quills were not trained for fighting a God, but Poe was quick to take the lead and grab Kamille's alchemy satchel while she was concerning herself with Scern, barking orders for the other two while she perused the potions as quick as she could. From it, she took three potions, and while she drank one of them [3], the other she kept to herself [4], and the last one she applied to her katana [5]. Allan received two potions [6,7]. Edgar applied another potion to his daggers [8].

Before Allan would turn to his own potions, however, he turned to Kalaf, the black dragon that had agreed to accompany the Lady - but certainly, probably, not agreed to fight a God.

"We need him distracted. Can you help us?"

Kalaf couldn't speak to him in ways they could understand, but the threat was evident and he knew what was asked of him. The adult fire drake took flight to circle the God, handling the situation the only way he knew: breathing fire upon Ziev [9]. Allan, not without a hint of the theatrics, nocked the first arrow on his bow.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it was an honor! I hope you're ready to die anytime soon, because we're about to leave our mark in Time!"

And with that, the first arrow of the night was loose [10].

[1]Massive Fireball (Kamille's Attack Action)
[2]Reveal Truth (Kamille's Suport Action)
[3]Quick Speed Potion (Poe's Support Action)
[4]Bull Strength Potion
[5]Delusional Potion (Poe's Support Action)
[6]Smoke Flask
[7]Flash Flask
[8]Sleep poison (Edgar's Support Action)
[9]Fire breath (Kalaf's Attack Action)
[10]Arrow: Holy and fire enchantments (Allan's Attack Action)

Minions:
Edgar (Fighting daggers + Holy and fire enchantments)
Allan (Long bow + ammo + Holy and fire enchantments)
Poe (Katana + Light and fire enchantments)

Pets:
Kalaf (Black dragon)
Mounted feline (Panther)
Sir Prize and Mis Fortune (Gargoyle Rooks, does not take pet slot)
Bottle of Sootlings (Does not take pet slot)

One moment he is standing beside proven allies stepping into the unknown together, high on promise of unknown powers and divine artifacts, the next he is floating in the timeless wastes under the threat of some unquantifiably powerful entity stamping out his existence. A crowd of strangers surrounded the figure espousing familiarity as he begins casting strange magics to reinforce his claim as everyone's champion. Perspective warped from over-blown to miniaturized as the godly being struck and reeled from crimson runes which filled the space between Ziev and Scern. There was no time for comment, nor moment for respite, only time enough to act quickly. To choose between offending a god by defending oneself or striking down a supposed savior who could very well be the mastermind behind some grand illusion.

Shouts from a large winged man pierced his stupor for a moment. A call to rally. To fight the keeper of space and time. As though such a thing were even possible, let alone imaginable.

Maude had seen the divine. Warping flesh, bone, and steel like dasher through churn. Minds twisted beyond recognition, falsehoods turned into truths, and reality misshapen beneath some great other's will. His eyes were unburnt, skin unblemished, and mind sound. Beyond the ever pressing fear the experience screamed of the more mundane. All smoke and mirror. To overly trust one's understanding of their circumstances before the divine, however, was a lesson learned only once. Maude may not hold the gods in reverence but fear of what they were capable of stayed his hand from rashness. He prepared his crossbow for use and scanned his surroundings for faults or tremors consistent with illusory magics. All the while, bracing for whatever danger found him.

"This isn't right, goldenblood." he mutters to the brown haired man chanting spells beside him. "Cultist on one end and god on the other. To strike the divine is to invite demise. Not only upon one but all who hold one dear. This isn't right."

_____________

Defensive Action

A lump of anxiety and dread caught up in her throat, nearly choking her; she sighed, and the air that escaped her lungs brought about the weight of the world upon her shoulders, or so it seemed. Tears streamed down her cheeks, unrestrained, and she didn't find the strength to contain them. Her body felt heavy, worn by a lifetime of a loop in time, and for a moment clarity escaped her, tormented as she felt by having her mind flooded by what was on Scern's mind.

It was all a lie, all along........ He was right.

Her father was right about the Gods.....

And how could they hope to fight against Ziev? She looked over to Scern, stil trying to cast something that would take them home. What could they hope to accomplish against the God of time and space in his own element? How effective spells of his own domain were? Her thoughts were scrambled, and an extra effort was spent in just putting up a line of thought that could take them somewhere.......

But what was the point of it all?!

As she looked around, everyone seemed as hopeless and confused as herself, having gone through the same living hell an infinite number of times. Everyone...

Everyone except Scern. She glared at him, still close enough so she could make herself heard.

"Scern! Ziev is rewinding time! Can you not see it? How can we stop him? Why can't you do this faster!?"

Frustration and the feeling of hopeless dread threatened to make her useless. Almost in an instinctive and impulsive way, she casted a spell for Scern to be quicker with his own [1], without even realizing that meddling with time in the presence of Ziev was probably pointless. They needed to try something, anything! The tears burned in her eyes, almost as much... almost as much the burning that made her heart beat faster, pumping that warmth that made her tremble, lending her thoughts a quick moment of clarity. It wasn't that cozy, embracing warmth that usually irradiated from her - but rather it felt poisonous, suffocating, oppressing, heart wrenching. Rage was never something she took in easily, unaccostumed to it, not knowing how to let it go properly. It ate at her from inside, and she felt she was about to explode as she tried to contain it.

A monster raged beneath her heart - a heart that was always open to housing beasts and monsters - but this one was ready to devour her, from the inside out. She turned to her partners.

"The Gods...... Are all a lie! Don't hold out your hand if you think that will grant you their mercy... They will never show us mercy - certainly not Ziev!"

I wish you gone, Ziev.

Where did that thought came from? It felt familiar on her lips, uttered before a time when she faced the manifestation of the God before her.

I wish you gone.

The Witch raised her hands, and as she drew runes in the air, they remained carved in the nothingness before her, suspended as fiery symbols. With another flowery gesture, the symbols went flying away to surround the God of Time, glowing faintly at first, as a red mist gathered between them. As they flashed and burned through the blackness, the spell was activated and attempted at throwing Ziev's manifestation back where he came from [2].

The Black Quills felt disheartened with everything happening around them. It felt like there was no escape - no hope. Only to keep on trying. Kamille was too busy in weaving her own spells, in sorting out her own thoughts and memories that didn't belong to her to have time to encourage them: that task fell to Kalaf.

The black drake was as confused as anyone, but as a beast, and one much more comfortable with his own anger and frustration, let out a loud, earth shattering roar, taking wing without being ordered to. All he wanted to do was bathe this so called great being in his flames, and that was a pretty straightforward task [3].

It served to break the initian inertia from the Black Quills, who all took their positions once again, each taking a few potions to themselves [4,5,6] before flinging themselves out against a God once more [7,8,9].

[1]Quicken (Kamille's Support action)
[2]Banish (Kamille's Support action)
[3]Fiery breath (Kalaf's Attack action)
[4]Quick Speed Potion (Poe's Support Action)
[5]Bull Strength Potion (Edgar's Support Action)
[6]Delusional Poison applied to arrows (Support action)
[7]Poe attacks Ziev with her katana + Holy and fire enchantment (Poe's Attack action)
[8]Edgar attacks Ziev with his fighting knives + Holy and fire enchantment (Edgar's Attack action)
[9]Allan shoots an arrow at Ziev + Holy and fire enchantment (Allan's Attack action)

Edward gasps for air, feeling as though he was drowning in the sea of time. He faintly remembers living this moment over and over again. He groans in pain as he feels as though his body has aged several decades in a couple moment, his mind overwhelmed with confused thoughts. He breaths in and out, trying to recover from this overwhelming attack? Was it even an attack? He looks at the god, who looks back at the group of mortals, seemingly in disdain in Edward’s eyes. Edward never worshipped or feared the gods, that is true. He thought they didn’t exist or that they don’t interfere in mortal affairs because they were too benevolent. But, Edward now knows that this being in front of him is no mere myth or legend.

The gods truly exist and they are not benevolent or kind. In his heart, Edward now knows to fear the gods, to fear their overwhelming might. But fear isn’t the only emotion Edward feels at the moment. He feels the despair of the weak and the hatred for the strong. He despairs for the moment that the gods return to Charon and feels hatred for how strong the gods are and how willing they are to use that strength with no thought for the weak. He looks at the group, he sees Kamille casting her spells at Scern and Ziev in desperation. He sees the Black Quills drinking their potions and unleashing their weapons upon the mighty god, knowing that they might die but are still struggling to overcome this mighty obstacle. He sees Maude and noticed his hesitation from the timelines before. Edward sighs, knowing that Maude may die because of this hesitation. Edward doesn’t exactly know why Maude hesitated, he doesn’t deserve to die like this, in a foreign realm inhabited by a cruel god.

Edward pushes down his fear and hatred down, knowing it would get him nowhere right now. This god may control time and space, but struggling is what mortals do to fight against overwhelming odds. Right now, he needs to do something, anything to buy Scern enough time to complete his spell. Edward chants words of power again, which manifests as threads of golden white energy that shoots out of his mouth and flies towards Ziev, forming into a bolt midway as it flies towards the god’s chest1. Edward then changes the chant as blue mist starts to wisp out of his mouth. He moves 30 feet away from Scern and Kamille while grabbing Maude on the way. The blue mist swirl around them and forms into a dome of blue energy2.

---

1) Purity Bolt (Offensive action): This spells allows you to form a small bolt of light, pulsating energy in the palm of your hand. This bolt is about the size of a dagger and while it can effectively be used in melee combat, it excels at range, growing in size as it soars through the air. It can grow in size to equal a spear, piercing its enemies and dealing damage.
-Deals light damage- (25 Solars)
2) Anti-Magic Field (Defensive Action): This spell creates a dome of magical energy around your body, reaching out to 15 feet with you at its center. This dome will last two post and as long as it is active magical effects inside of the dome will automatically end. This prevents any kind of magical effect to exist inside of the dome. Spells can not be cast inside of it, can not cross through it and all magical enchantments or effects will become inactive for the duration of the dome. (does not include prestige classes) This spell can be used twice per topic.

Exhaustion fell over him like fine snow gone unnoticed by sleeping guard. Suddenly it felt like it would consume him until he blinked away the drowse rapidly. The moment had begun again. The pale man rambled, the witch and her coterie flung spells and spat at the god, same for the winged brunette. The exception being Ziev's smirking face and the spell wreathed over Maude. It crawled on his skin like static and sapped the magic from the space around him.

There were fewer shouts this time. He couldn't tell if the moment had happened in the first place. His trust in perception would have to serve as stalwart resolve and memory began to falter.

This was indeed the divine. It had to be, for no magics had ever encompassed so much before in his experience. The beginnings of a frayed mind were hint enough for that. Ziev's imposing form would allow him no respite from the danger at hand. And the effects of his celestial powers would bind them all here for so long as he demanded.

"This isn't right, goldenblood." he mutters to the brown haired man chanting spells beside him. "To strike the divine. What they will commands this realm and all within it. All but one."

Looking again over Scern he saw nothing of note which would remove him from the bounds of that which held the very stars at bay. Only more questions bubbled up as the lifetimes caught up with his mortal mind.

He leveled his weapon towards the mad sorcerer and spoke, "What keeps you from his might?"

A maelstrom of thoughts flooded her mind, her body buckling under the weight of her tiredness and stress. Too much information, and the time was short. Actions must be taken. Soon. Now. Fast!

Hopefully, the Black Quills had the autonomy to act on their own without her management, which was great for a situation like that, where Kamille tried to gather every shred of coherent thought and sanity to be useful and cast her spells. The tears dried in her eyes, still red and swollen - but for that purpose she was glad of her spell: Scern was right. Ziev was a lie. When Maude approached the cultist, she stood between them, and in all the insane and ridiculous things she had imagined she could do in her lifetime, defending a cultist, even if briefly, was not one of them.

"There’s no time for this, Maude. Ziev is a liar. This much you can trust. Perhaps this is because he actually touched the Sol Stone, I don’t know... But right now, we need to focus on getting out of here!"

It didn’t escape her that her spells didn’t work the way they were supposed to, but that didn’t come as a surprise. Of course the alleged god of Time would have some kind of resistance against spells from his own domain. Those spells would be of no use there. Time was such a complex concept, more fluid than water, volatile. Not as trustworthy and stable as the earth.

Earth.

The thought crossed her mind, but before she could act on it, Allan pulled her by the arm, more aware of the surroundings than his boss, yanking her out of the way of beams.

"You alright boss? What’s going on here? Is that actually Ziev?"

Never had Kamille been so thankfull for the Black Quills ability to act on their own, even if their confusion was evident. They didn’t seem to have fully grasped the gravity of the situation entirely - and yet, there they were, attacking to the best of their abilities. Poe and Edgar remained close to the physical manifestation of the God, trying their best to have their attacks go through. At the same time, Kalaf did what he knew best: he breathed fire upon that monstrosity of a god, flying around it in circles to avoid his attacks.

It didn’t look like the attacks were doing any damage to Ziev. Kamille looked around for a moment. Everyone was so bent on getting through the god, she quickly registered Zarius using some kind of power she wasn’t aware of, with blue flames. Two arrows flew past her.

Stop thinking. Just do something.

Before her strength would abandon her, she raised her hands to the sky, as her whole body got wrapped in flames. She might not have the ability to protect Scern for him to complete the spell, and since the magic from the Space domain seemed to have little effect there, she turned to her old best friend: fire and Mayhem.

Once she clasped her hands together, a giant meteor was summoned forth from the elemental planes to that weird pocket dimension of sorts. The meteor crashed against the physical manifestation of the God, only so it could splatter fiery stone and lava on the ground next to it.

With a rumbling, the lava and molten and fiery stone rose in the air, piling up one rock on top of the other, forming limbs, a torso, and lastly a small skull head on top of large, broad and stony shoulders. The lava golem stood some good ten feet high in the air, roaring in the face of the God of Time - a manifestation of the earth domain that tried, as quickly as he was ready, to punch Ziev.

As the rumbling meteor crashed, the Witch already started to prepare another spell, once again feeling the weight of time upon her shoulders. Going back to her offensive stance, the flames that enveloped her coalesced in two smaller balls of fire in her hands. Those two smaller balls of fire grew together upon joining her hands, and when she launched that at Ziev, it was a Massive Fireball that left her hands.

---

Kamille: Two offensive spells, summoning Mayhem and Massive Fireball (Two offensive actions)
Edgar, Allan and Poe: all attack with their respective weapons (Two offensive actions each)
Kalaf: flying around and breathing fire (Two offensive actions)

Edward sees the beams of light shooting out at Scern. He quickly dispels his field of anti magic and chant words of light. Streams of light spills from his mouth and form into a dome of light¹ and a wall of light^2. Edward moves the wall to cover Scern from one of the beams. Edward, with the dome of light, moves directly into the path of the other beam to protect Scern.

---

1) Circle of life (defensive action)
2) Wall of light (defensive action)

Kamille strained to call upon a manifestation of earth and lava, and tiredness was starting to weigh her down and make sweat beads glisten on her forehead. Scern had apparently managed to restrain the manifestation of Ziev, it was the time to attack.

It was hard not to feel hopeless.

Mayhem knew no fear, so once he was roaring at the top of his ten foot tall might, he charged forward with no hesitation, bodyslaming at the giant godly being and trying to punch him. The Black Quills looked just as disheartened as the Witch, but wouldn't cease their attack, specially now that Scern did something that seemed to affect him.

Kamille pulled out of her satchel both of her rook pieces and threw them ahead, whispering a few words of power. Once they hit the floor, they were already at least six foot tall stone gargoyles, Sir Prize and Miss Fortune, running towards the fake god to claw and bite at him at the best of their capacities. They, too, didn't feel any fear to keep them from attacking.

"Keep fighting... Just keep fighting!"

It was too much information for too little time. Just keep fighting. Just keep fighting.

Just... keep... moving on...

In a sudden burst of energy, her whole shape was taken by flames, as she once again used the element she was the most comfortable with to strike the god-like being, hurling another giant fireball at it. Her knees were almost giving up, and she had a vague idea that Allan was shooting arrows by her side, her mind starting to be taken by that mist of weariness and stress and fatigue.

She let out a shaky sigh. It was too much...

---

Kamille: Summoning the gargoyles Sir Prize and Miss Fortune and Massive Fireball (Suport action + Offensive action)
Black Quills: all attack with their respective weapons (Two offensive actions each)
Sir Prize and Miss Fortune: both attack with claws and bite (Two offensive actions each)
Mayhem: attacks with his own body and fists (Two offensive actions)
Kalaf: flying around and breathing fire (Two offensive actions)