Gamestar Forum

Celtchar

"I'm concerned about your plan." Celtchar said, "Destroying the key and all that. Fighting other masters was one thing but how do you intend to fight a god?"

Nicole

"...huh."

Nicole really truly did consider attacking the girl. I mean, what would happen to her serial killer street cred, if she started making friends with random people and then just letting them walk away.

But for some reason,  she didn't.

Instead she glanced down at her map, and found... nobody. Nobody at all. Besides the silly art girl, of course. Everyone else had gone.

Shrugging, she turned and took the opposite corridor. There wasn't much else to do here anymore.

"Hey, Ruler." She spoke aloud. "If the clubs do win... do I get to keep my servant?"
Hypatia
Hypatia shook her head. "Caster, you know Ruler as well as I do -- even at this late stage, he still harbors strange powers. Surely you don't think it trivial that he would be opposing any attempt to end the war! I understand that you are trying to work towards peace, but I worry whether you'll be capable of achieving anything."

Hypatia

Hypatia was silent for a long time.

"In my time--" She began. "I tried to speak out for peace. When I was summoned, I thought that it was my redemption -- that I'd been given a chance to make peace. I tried fighting the good, honorable fight... In fact, most of us Spades -- myself, the Rider, even the Assassin -- tried to be ethical and merciful. You can see how well that worked out for us: no catalysts, no map pieces," She paused, and glanced over to the Caster of Clubs. His expression seemed unreadable. "My master, dead. I suppose that I just... struggle to see you Clubs as the good guys. You've destroyed a civilian building, you've harbored a serial killer, and you've kidnapped one of our own. I just don't feel comfortable leaving people like you responsible for the peace and well-being of the future."

Cody Lazarus

"...Thanks. I'll make sure to be careful. I know how dangerous things are getting here, so I'm at least grateful you're willing to help."

Caster

"To be frank..." Another sip of coffee. "I don't blame you at all. Your train of thought here makes absolutely perfect sense. Unfortunately, I'm in no position to stand down. We've done our best to weed out the undesirables... Hemingway was cut off, and we've no moral affiliation with the girl who destroyed that building. But the kidnapping..." He looked down. "I suppose we could've intervened. My master's made a lot of mistakes in this war, letting these people run free. But the reason I have so much faith in him is, well, he admits that he's wrong. He may not show it much, but at night I can hear him thinking. He doesn't get as much sleep as he wants the rest of his allies to know- most of the time he lays awake, beating himself up over everything that's gone wrong. Now he's gotten himself into a hot mess with the AI he created, and I've no idea how the hell he's going to get out of it, but he's not letting it stop him. I agree with you, though. Much of what we've done has been inexcusable. Therein lies the current problem... Our final victory hinges on playing games with the last club, some sadistic little girl who just wants to toy with us."

Anne

"What exactly are we doing... when we get Maria to cooperate, that is." Anne said while Penny went to sniff some electronic things that she saw.

Flashback on Day Something of the War
(After having made contact with Cody and Henri and promptly starting to not cooperate at all with her supposed teammates)
Maria

      "So King Richard the Third, we have a few things to discuss. From this point on, I will be frank about everything and take less of an overly obedient, ego fellating little girl who respectfully guides you about while actually explaining her actions at all. Although Ruler fills the servants in on the basics of what occurs in the present and gives them a language filter, he does not provide a substantial amount of information. So let's have a nice long talk about what happened after your death."

      She paused briefly to gauge his reaction. The weathered face crumpled up some more, seemingly facing a hard pill to swallow.

       "So after you died valiantly in what we now call the Battle of Bosworth Field, ....... [skip the history stuff jargon]. And thus that is what happened to the monarchy system and that is what the Buckingham Palace base entails."

       "So I wish to be your advisor, dear King of England, as what your heritage is does not matter in this war. This is simply a matter of a battle between two systems of ideas. In the modern day and age, most people disdain the concept of bloodshed, or rather, so they claim. Direct wars are not waged very often outside of the magical community whenever such an event occurs and when in situations in which it is not acknowledged as war."

       "What we have today, is a term called terrorism. Those who commit acts of terrorism are considered terrorists and as communication systems are much better, these acts are reported and shunned by the international community unless the group committing such acts are in power."

       "Nowadays, rather than declaring war, leaders of countries declare that they are fighting a despotic regime that is detrimental to the structural fabric of the world and thus remotely bombard their civilians with mass weaponry. In magic equivalent, it's like bombarding a city with tens of thousands of A rank spells, causing casualty counts to an upwards of ten times of London's total population under your reign. No one takes pride in the fact that wars exist anymore. You become branded as a warmonger and shunned by all. But even war is no longer an expression of free will. You are still constrained by your surrounds and the entire world that encompasses that. It's quite a different world from what you know, my king."

      "Long gone are the days in which wars matter. I personally do not believe there is any point for this war to exist nor do i feel it needs to disappear. Magecraft is quite obsolete now. The olden magicks are still long lost and the scholars have still been unable to find many records of the older systems. Mages are reduced to having petty arguments against other cliches that have been formed over the last few centuries. Magecraft cannot keep up with the sheer efficiency of technological advances in the outside world. I personally use modern technology to ease the burden of using high output magecraft."

      "So that is our situation dear king. I still wish to win this war for personal gain. It's a nice excuse from college, work, and all of the ailments of life. What I wish for the power to have a voice. Without power, one does not have authority. Without authority, one cannot influence anything. With power, I can cut my ties to what lay behind me. My liege, I understand that you wish to return to your glory days, to be able to fight once more on the valiant battlefield and triumph. If you allow me to guide you to your final battlefield, you shall fight to your heart's content."

     "To the glory of Britannia and to all that it stands for. Amen."

     Saying all of that with a straight face took a lot of effort. That was both mentally exhausting and taxing on my throat. Ha, what pointless nonsense, even if it is all true. I want nothing to do with this. Yes, all that I need to do, is to pretend to make enough of an effort to complete my assignment and ultimately fail but conveniently capturing footage of my valiant efforts to further the war efforts. Yes, all for the sake of a bright future of cake, tea and tomfoolery, I must endure.
Also, i get to legally vent by blowing up buildings. And I get to cut class.

     After a solemn pause, Lancer of Clubs nodded.

     "Your reasoning is just. Carry on. I will see through to your words. If you fail me, it is you that shall fall upon this spear. Our enemies shall despair, and die."

      "Let us consolidate this contract between sovereign and master; by my will, we shall work in union to reach the war's end. 'Til the second coming of the Battle of Bosworth, we shall stand together, arms raised, and to us the final laugh will be awarded."

      Maria raised her cup in the air and took a sip. Sweet, but not too sweet.

Cody Lazarus

He heard another knock. Is my lab the lounge, now? "Uh, come in!" Henri walked through the door. "Oh, Henri, glad you came. Do you know how to deal with that one pink-haired girl we met in England? I've got a real bad feeling about her."

Cody Lazarus

"That's not possible." Kirin's voice came unexpectedly. He was resting against a wall by the door.

Cody scratched his head. "Kirin, why can't you just knock like normal people?"

He shrugged. "Well, I was going to..." He walked in and sat down. "As I was saying, time isn't an unlimited resource here. My father still remains, and before long he'll be doing everything in his power to bring us all down- and I hope you all realize, this is the same man that won the previous Sanctum War."

"Well..." Cody **** his knuckles. "We have servants. What's he got besides his own magic ability?"

"That's what frightens me." Kirin paused. "I never learned much about him. I don't know what my father's going to bring to the table."