Plot Advancing PQ before the wave hits
Hotaru Kaito
the Valkyrie
Masseuse / Headmistress

Age: 33 | Height: 5'2 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: King's End
Level: 3 - Strg: 38 - Dext: 38 - Endr: 54 - Luck: 40 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
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Posts: 2,241 | Total: 6,168
MP: 9427
#15
but now it is a competition of whichever is heavier:
my will, or the pull of gravity into the grave
Noah and Deimos' voices ring in her head, and she can vaguely feel Noah's intentions along the bond as he continues to inspect the wagon below. Contemplating her options, the Valkyrie leaves Noah to investigate and returns to the house on her wings. The wagon is to the west. The oxen are alive, but no sign of humans. I will keep an eye up here while you inform Darkeye - anything noteworthy inside? She is reluctant to remove herself from the sky if it means something could sneak up on them, and is quite confident that Deimos can translate anything she or Noah may impart to Darkeye.

Circling the house from above, the Valkyrie continues to try and search for any tracks that would denote human travelers while also keeping an eye for any potential threats to the two men below.

- - -

Ru comes back to the house while telling Deimos what she has found, but circles above to continue looking for clues and as a lookout for any trouble.
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
Darkeye Dwartonarm
Cleric / Blacksmith

Age: 156 | Height: 160 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 25 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 19 - Int: 0
Mahariel - Regular - Black Panther
Played by: Lostdream Offline
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#16
Darkeye
Nine strikes
Darkeye tried to go back to the house and report as soon as his instincts allowed him to. He was careful everything smelled like a trap... He tried to remember the position of the tracks and pass them on if one of the allies came into sight. With his weapons ready, he went back into the house. He knocked before entering, not wanting to scare anyone. But he was ready to get hurt if someone tried to jump on him. But when he saw only Deimos, he breathed a sigh of relief. He took another breath before he spoke quietly and concentrated. "Deimos this could be a trap. I have found traces of three or more people who have fled from here in a wild way. They lead into the wilderness away from this building. We have to be careful," he said, describing where the tracks were from the house. As soon as he said that, he looked around the house nervously. He waited to hear what Deimos would say and awaited new orders, not believing that the party would be found alive.
each for one sin
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
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MP: 9824
#17
Deimos

Information came scouring through via Attuned bonds and the natural order, and Deimos stood along the house’s deck, brows furrowing. “Noah has found the wagon destroyed. Ru discovered oxen, but no humans,” informing Darkeye as he came to his own drawn conclusions. Whether it was a trap or not, there were signs that these individuals had been here. Conducting his own notions through the bonds and to the Accepted simultaneously, he shook his head. “Found evidence people have been through the house too.” But no sign of Mildew. Darkeye found tracks by the road.

All at once though – it may not have mattered.

The fog rolled in, yellow and putrid again, rising up to meet whomever happened to be around, twisting along to snag at Hotaru, to meander along Noah, to thread amidst Deimos and Darkeye.

Then the memories started – little bits and pieces of songs and horror and trauma, stinging on the inside and slashing at age-old wounds.

For Hotaru – it would be painfully obvious where the images would go. To death and damnation and the losses of children, no matter how far, how recent, how long it had been since they were taken, swarming around, anxious to greet her once more.

For Noah – times of brethren, of brothers, of loved ones by fires, of Halovian citizens grasping hands and laughing together, all gone and perished by the time the notes hit his ears.

For Darkeye – moments of friends and family, before everything vanished without a trace, a time before Outlander regards – wars and gods he knew, and understood, from the past.

For Deimos – threads of melancholic notions spurned and spun by family, by cherished and beloved people, all sinking and slinking back into his mind, grasping and toying, playing with the machinations.

He immediately stilled, staring ahead, ramrod straight as the warning was delivered. Do not be fooled, he uttered to Ru and Noah, already beginning to make his way towards them. Turning his head over to Darkeye, his jaw clenched. “There is something causing this.”

And all the while, the memories lingered, coaxing, enticing, yearning for everyone to join them, out into the swamp, into the murk, into the grime.

--

What will you do? No post order!
we exhume our enemy's bones
we are battling, hungry beasts
Hotaru Kaito
the Valkyrie
Masseuse / Headmistress

Age: 33 | Height: 5'2 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: King's End
Level: 3 - Strg: 38 - Dext: 38 - Endr: 54 - Luck: 40 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
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Posts: 2,241 | Total: 6,168
MP: 9427
#18
How do I keep myself from fallin' apart when I ain't never felt part of a whole?
Had they been looting, or had something driven them into the house to hide away? Had they even made it that far? There are a million things that could have happened, too many threads and too few answers, and Ru hates puzzles like those. She is about to cast down further questions for Deimos when the fog rolls inexorably inland once more, causing her to narrow her eyes to try and see through or beyond it to whatever could be causing it -

The memories come all at once, slamming into her like an arrow through her chest and making her wings stutter and lose altitude sharply. Dei -! she calls desperately, reaching out for the only touchstone she has and carelessly broadcasting wholly across the Attuned bond. His voice reaches her seconds later and she manages a spasm of her wings to keep herself from falling utterly from the sky. How can she not be fooled? Her sons are right there, so close but just out of reach, hands outstretched and silent cries on their tortured faces and -

She slams into the ground in human form, painfully crashing into the earth on all fours as she heaves, bile in her throat, and gasps for breath. No no no no no, she grips her hair in both hands, cowering in the dirt like a terrified child. The pain is too fresh for her to fight it the way Deimos does, stalwart and strong, and her emotions rage wild and untempered through the bond without a care for what it does to her kin. Deimos. Deimos. Please. Please. She's falling apart and she needs - she -

Helplessly she whips her magic around her in a circle, trying to cling to the Sword's words of a cause and remembering the horrible mist from the war. Which is a memory that only further reminds her of Enzo's bloodied face, the dragons screeching around them, Flora's gut-wrenching cries. Utterly useless, the Valkyrie cowers, and the tears come hot and fast.

- - -

Ru falls out of the sky between Noah's position and the house, and tries a lame attempt at using her air magic to dispel the fog around her thinking it's the same as the mist from the Citadel attack.
HOTARU
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
Darkeye Dwartonarm
Cleric / Blacksmith

Age: 156 | Height: 160 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 25 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 19 - Int: 0
Mahariel - Regular - Black Panther
Played by: Lostdream Offline
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Posts: 920 | Total: 920
MP: 515
#19
Darkeye
Nine strikes
He could still hear the words of Deimos as the fog worked its way in. Was it sulfur or something else? That it had come so purposefully, however, the timing was too good. It was an attack Darkeye thought.

The trap had snapped shut the monster or the being responsible for it wanted to hit as many beings as possible at the same time... His instinct had been right.

To see his wife, his children, and his family again. This sight was too much and he wanted to give himself to the whole. To hear the familiar maniacal laughter of his god. A world that was easier for him to understand. He began to laugh maniacally himself. All the muscles in his body tensed. He was still glad to hear the warning from Deimos. It was clear to him that his gods and his family were not in this world. He slapped them hard in the face and tried to shake off the illusion. The blow was more to become aware of their current situation.

He tried to sharpen his other senses as he cut a piece of his blanket and soaked it with water. He tied it around his nose. Whether it would bring what he does not know. With a muffled voice, he tried to speak to Deimos. "Weeee ssssshould gaaaather annnnd sssseeeecure theeee flannnnks..." he said with a lot of effort. He tried to secure Deimos' flank. He does not know what is happening out there. But as long as the sword did not give any other orders, he would try to stay with him and secure his flank.

----
Darkeye stays by Deimo's side and tries to cover the gas with a cloth in front of his nose. He would move with him and secure his flank should he do so.
each for one sin
Noah Olson
the Forsaken
Hunter

Age: 34 | Height: 6'2 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 9 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 47 - Endr: 46 - Luck: 47 - Int: 1
EIRA - Mythical - Griffin (Venom) VI’ADORE - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
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#20
Noah crouched near the wagon, inspecting it further. He didn’t notice the fog rolling in, the mist curling around his ankles, until it was too late. Like a nightmare coming in from the back of his mind, Noah’s thoughts were instantly overrun by the screams. Screams of his name, of battle cries to protect the gates, of the terrified shrieks of children as ice and stone and fire all rained down together. Noah gasped, startled by the sudden onset of the ghosts of his past.

Then he saw it, too. The Hale house. Burning hot embers and screaming, breaking, disintegrating beams. Noah’s breath caught in his lungs and he fell back onto his butt, limbs pushing and scrambling him away from the burning house that had just been a destroyed trade convoy moments ago. He wanted to run, wanted to engage the compass in his pocket and burst through the door of his home — where was Cordelia? Where was she? Panic began to rise and he felt the white hot heat of it in the palms of his hands. But, like a knife stabbed into his side, the Sentinel of the North was pulled from his own waking nightmare.

Hotaru’s voice ripped across the bond and without any true control over his body Noah was to his feet. He was running, just as he wanted to a heartbeat before, but now it was towards the body that came crashing to the earth and the raging terror that silenced everything else along the attuned bond. Skidding to her, Noah’s mind pushed everything else out and only pulsed one thing.

protect.Protect. PROTECT.

Noah curled his body around Hotaru and held her tightly against his chest. One strong arm wrapped around her and the other assisted his legs in pushing them up from the ground. We have to go. He said over the bond, his mental voice like a mountain — strong, steady, calm yet commanding. We can’t stay here. Like he had when the ascended attacked the Citadel, Noah urged Hotaru to flee from this place and he, with his higher strength and mass, would pick her up and carry her to Deimos if she didn’t try to follow him.


Noah runs to Hotaru and basically tries to drag or carry her to the house / Deimos.

noah
the sentinel of the north
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
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Posts: 6,559 | Total: 10,652
MP: 9824
#21
Deimos

It was a sudden, instant barrage against his senses – Ru calling for him, the flood of her emotions, the rampaging traces of Noah’s own, and Darkeye’s muffled compulsions. For one moment he was very still and tense, everything pulling tighter and tighter until his lungs compressed, and he couldn’t breathe – not with Ru’s children in his eyes and the fires of the Hale house and the daunting glances of his family gazing back at him –

Jaw clenched, he maneuvered onward, and when he could see the cleric from the corner of his eye, following, he made it towards Ru and Noah, as if fighting an incoming storm or drowning, flooding waters – slow, treading and treading and treading and trying so desperately not to fall apart at the seams either.

Until blasts of air unfurled from his incantations, joining the Valkyrie’s, and the combination coincided with his own – rapidly, swiftly, quickly, chasing down the harsh, unrelenting mist and the horrific abyss. It glided and rolled off, away and away, giving them enough time to recover – maybe…

And for Noah, an opportunity to catch a glimmer of scales, of fins, striving to float and dart away from the scene…

--

Deimos, Ru, Noah, and Darkeye all reach one another. Deimos and Ru’s magic has pushed away the fog (for now), giving them a chance to recover from the latest onslaught.

Noah has seen something! No post order!
we exhume our enemy's bones
we are battling, hungry beasts
Hotaru Kaito
the Valkyrie
Masseuse / Headmistress

Age: 33 | Height: 5'2 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: King's End
Level: 3 - Strg: 38 - Dext: 38 - Endr: 54 - Luck: 40 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
Change author:
Posts: 2,241 | Total: 6,168
MP: 9427
#22
How do I keep myself from fallin' apart when I ain't never felt part of a whole?
Ru’in’s voice calls for her, broken and raspy, and Enzo’s still-warm hand lies limp in hers like a phantom sensation that even gripping her own hair can’t force away. Her boys - her babies - they need her and she can only cower in the mud, useless, crying for help that isn’t coming-

Strong arms wrap around her, and Hotaru’s hands grasp desperately for the body that falls over hers, for a moment thinking it’s Deimos - until Noah’s scent hits her animal hindbrain. Her fingers curl desperately into his clothes, profound relief washing over her and through the bond as her half-focused magic simultaneously provides a few precious moments of clarity. Noah, she breathes, muddled amidst his commands, a prayer that has no purpose other than the comfort it brings her to utter it.

Her legs are shaky and hurt like hell from falling out of the sky and onto them, but she would follow Noah to the ends of the earth. No amount of terror and trauma can stop the instinctive heeding of his words, the implicit trust in the man that utters them. Though she doesn’t recall telling them to move, her legs half-carry her in the same way Noah half-hauls her forward, and then Deimos is there and their magic combines like a familiar maelstrom. Finally able to breathe, Ru clings to Noah even as the terrible images fade, looking towards Deimos through wind-whipped hair. “It can’t be magic, there’s nobody around,” she croaks, voice tight and ashamed. All she can do is keep her magic at work, attempting to appear more put together than she is even as her hands remain clawed into Noah’s clothes.

- - -

Ru goes with Noah to meet the others and keeps her air magic up against the fog.
HOTARU
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
Darkeye Dwartonarm
Cleric / Blacksmith

Age: 156 | Height: 160 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 25 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 19 - Int: 0
Mahariel - Regular - Black Panther
Played by: Lostdream Offline
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Posts: 920 | Total: 920
MP: 515
#23
Darkeye
Nine strikes
Darkeye tried to support the sword as much as he could and let him... When the group finally reached what felt to Darkeye like an eternity. He grabbed his spear and tried to see as much as possible at once and to see the people because of the fog, so this was not possible. He now protected the others. He could not do anything else. Their advantage was that they would act as a group. If they were to split up now, the creature might attack.

The images of his family were to be seen again and again as soon as he closed his eyes. It cost him a lot of effort and self-control not to surrender to these images. The embrace of his family. The view of what he had achieved. The God who gave a direction... The being who was responsible for it would suffer. He had buried the memories of it, but now the wound was open again. It would again take a long time to heal.

Darkeye rammed an axe into the ground near Deimos and walked in circles around the group, hoping to discover something. As long as the sword gave no orders, he would try to protect the group as long as his abilities allowed.

---
Darkeye tries to process the images and protect the group
each for one sin
Noah Olson
the Forsaken
Hunter

Age: 34 | Height: 6'2 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 9 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 47 - Endr: 46 - Luck: 47 - Int: 1
EIRA - Mythical - Griffin (Venom) VI’ADORE - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Time Offline
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Posts: 2,012 | Total: 2,366
MP: 1005
#24
The way that Hotaru’s hands clasp onto him and her grip tightens on fistfulls of cotton makes a lump form in the depth of Noah’s throat, blocking the white hot bile of fear and trauma that threatened to climb the length of it and spill from his mouth. You’re okay, I’ve got you. He reassured her mentally, pushing past the way his own heart slammed against his rib cage and the memories — nightmares — flashed again behind his eyes. Air whipped around them as Ru’s magic worked, and the fog dissipated as Deimos’ own incantations joined.

Relief. Letting out the breath he had been holding, Noah stood before the other two men and held Hotaru safely against him. He looked down at her smaller frame with soft glacier eyes and tried to assess if the woman had injured herself in the moments of terror. ”Are you—“ He was about to ask if she was okay when the glimmer of scales flashed in the corner of his eye.

Alert once more, Noah straightened himself and moved so that Hotaru was behind him, between himself and Deimos. ”There’s something here!” Noah snapped, eyes narrowing as he immediately pulled an arrow from his quiver and nocked it into his bow.


Noah alerts the others to something and readies an arrow!

noah
the sentinel of the north
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
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Posts: 6,559 | Total: 10,652
MP: 9824
#25
Deimos

The reverberations chiseled against his throat; like a scratching, clawing noose, until the memories faded, down, down, down, smothered and whole into the gnarled scars of his bones. A retreat, maybe, and for a moment they were allowed to breathe.

“Everyone all right?” An assessment he hadn’t made on himself, but one could pretend, for just a second, while they recovered and etched out what to do next. Recover? Move on? Find some other semblances of clues?

Deimos glanced down only briefly, and in that interim of time, Noah must have seen something. His head whipped upward, eyes narrowing, immediately drawn into some level of movement and motion.

Glints of scales. Hovering beyond, the fog growing thirty feet out from where his and Ru’s powers rested. His jaw clenched, as if he should’ve known. “Lamplighters.” Things began clicking into place, one by one by one, as his deep, rumbling voice persisted, continued. “They use memories to lure others,” out into the wilds of the swamp.

And he had no intention of being amidst the taken and ensnared.

“We need to get rid of them,” because he had a feeling, deep down, that they were only the crux of the issue. “If you do not wish to do so,” for he understood the nature of their weaponry to be heinous, and had no intention of putting anyone unwilling through that again, “You can stay in the house.” Swallowing down any bile, he advanced, a promise on his tongue. “I will keep the fog at bay,” and anything else he could unfurl.

Then his long strides carried him towards the fish.

--

Noah has spotted a cluster of lamplighters! Deimos has begun to move towards them, keeping the fog at bay.

Your characters may go help attack or seek safety in Mildew’s house.

No post order!
we exhume our enemy's bones
we are battling, hungry beasts
Noah Olson
the Forsaken
Hunter

Age: 34 | Height: 6'2 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 9 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 47 - Endr: 46 - Luck: 47 - Int: 1
EIRA - Mythical - Griffin (Venom) VI’ADORE - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Time Offline
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Posts: 2,012 | Total: 2,366
MP: 1005
#26
With an arrow nocked, and Hotaru behind him, Noah followed Deimos. He didn't hesitate -- if what Deimos said was true, and those creatures were what caused this reliving of trauma, then they couldn't be here. Noah would not let them cause more harm to those around him -- his friends -- especially not Hotaru. His heart pounded against his chest still, but this time each pump of blood through his system was charged by determination.

Lifting his bow, Noah let loose an arrow. He aimed at one of the lamplighters, obviously. He hoped that his arrow would lodge deep into its scales and set it ablaze. If I hit it, Deimos, let the fire grow. Noah nearly commanded over the attuned bond, all the while summoning his spirit stag to charge and attack the lamplighters from a different angle.


Noah shoots an arrow at the lamplighters and sets his Spirit Stag to attack!

Type: Dark | Style: Offensive | Level: Basic
Fire Quiver | A magical quiver that turns any arrow placed within into a flaming projectile that ignites upon impact. (Made by Deimos)

Magic: Spirit Stag | Can summon the spirit of a mighty stag; an echo of Noah's former shift. This will last for 1 post per thread and appears to be made of pure sunlight. Noah can direct the stag to charge at a target, dealing fire damage and causing disadvantage on their next roll.
Type: Light | Rank: Basic

noah
the sentinel of the north
Darkeye Dwartonarm
Cleric / Blacksmith

Age: 156 | Height: 160 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 25 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 19 - Int: 0
Mahariel - Regular - Black Panther
Played by: Lostdream Offline
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Posts: 920 | Total: 920
MP: 515
#27
Darkeye
Nine strikes
Darkeye was angry as he had not been for a long time. These erections were for him and no one else. He grabbed his axe and was the first to immediately oneend these whose and went over the attack. How dare this creature venture into something so private.

He wiped some sweat from his eyes if it was sweat at all. The memories were painfully beautiful... But the here and now was to experience and not to lose himself in dreams and fantasies.

Darkeye tries to approach as close as the abilities of Deimos and Hotaru allow and throws the axe on the creatures.

----
Darkeye goes into the attack

Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Upgraded
Throwing Axes | A pair of throwing axes crafted from the tooth of a giant landshark. They only ever deal basic damage, but allow the wielder to teleport up to 15ft in distance. Throwing the axe and teleporting each count as separate actions - they cannot be done in the same turn.
each for one sin
Hotaru Kaito
the Valkyrie
Masseuse / Headmistress

Age: 33 | Height: 5'2 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: King's End
Level: 3 - Strg: 38 - Dext: 38 - Endr: 54 - Luck: 40 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
Change author:
Posts: 2,241 | Total: 6,168
MP: 9427
#28
How do I keep myself from fallin' apart when I ain't never felt part of a whole?
You're okay, I've got you, sinks down into her bones and chases the last of the shadows away, and though shame is hot on their heels there is another emotion too - fury. Incensed that whatever lies out there in the mist had forced her to come face to face with her darkest moments and found her wanting. So when Noah catches sight of whatever lies beyond, Deimos' offer of retreat is merely kindling to her fire.

Because it doesn't matter if Hotaru is knees deep in the dirt, her power has never been restricted to the area of her body. Only for a moment do sharp, wild eyes take in what her compatriots are doing to ensure her violence will not reach them - and then she summons every manner of storm she can that lives in her veins. Thick clouds coalesce seemingly from nowhere as lightning rains down on the far side of where the creature had been sighted so that Deimos' advancement and Darkeye's thrown attack will not endanger either of them. Willing to scorch the earth to see the end of this.

- - -

Ru uses her lightning farther out from the group to not endanger them to strike a wider area.
HOTARU
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.


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