Welcome to Gaia! ::

This room is the largest room on the map.

It is still dark and covered in fog, just like when you first came here. But then you hear something. It’s coming from the center of the room.

“Finally! The door is open!”

It’s Urania’s voice.

“The Chaos must have locked me inside. I wonder if that happened to the others, too. At least, I can leave this inner room now…”

The fog clears and the room is no longer dark!

There is a tiny inner room under a set of stairs in the center of the room. You see a dais just like the one that was outside. Urania has set her personal item there, just as she had done when you were outside to clear the fog.

She hasn’t noticed you yet.

You feel only one source of Chaos in this room and it is above you.

Above the inner room where Urania is located, there is a set of stairs. They lead to a platform. There is something human-shaped on the platform attached to wires, but is impossible to make out who or what it is because there is a barrier all around it.

A barrier made of Chaos.

“Why is that barrier there?”

You know that, if you attack the barrier, you can break inside…


❂

[Emain Ablach, Squire of Earth]

He was glad for the fog clearing and the room lightening up, at least. It made it easier to see what was coming up to them. It made it easier to keep track of Promethei and Imhotep--especially Imhotep. He could hear talking and listened closely, realising that the owner of the voice wasn't talking to any of them in the room. She didn't seem to even know they were there, yet.

She did seem to be bothered by the barrier, though, which made sense given the roiling Chaos that composed it. Emain Ablach looked down at his shield, then back to the barrier. It seemed that they had to get her out. He knew of only one way he'd be able to do that with what he had on hand. So he stepped forward, twisting his body at the same time to put as much force as he could into bashing his shield against the barrier.

Squire Halle of Lysithea

Watching the girls run up the stairs ahead of him, Halle abandoned his usual wait and watch from a distance habit, following right after them. there was another squire, Earth? Whp had a shield and was bashing away at the barrier with it. It seemed effective enough, though his own shield (and general stature) wasn't nearly as big as the man's.

Still, the connected and felt pretty solid, which was satisfying for a moment, but he didn't try hitting again. Instead he moved back a little, wary and ready for any potential counters or backlash.

Transcended Eternal Encke

Why is that barrier there?

That was a good question, and that was all Encke needed to know to know that it didn't belong there. The fact that Urania seemed to be stuck behind it, of course, backed that up, as well as that figure in the distance who radiated trouble. Either way, if they wanted to get to both her and whatever else was still waiting for them, they needed to get through the barrier.

Encke had no problem helping with that.

He summoned his static aura, wondering if perhaps the barrier would react badly to it, before going for the easiest way to fight things off. Punching the barrier might have felt foolish versus going for something that was a bigger figurative punch, but it would reserve his magic for any deeper battle up ahead.

Besides, he remembered. He was pretty good at fist fights.

Rose, Page of Lysithea

Rose took a calmer approach. The weakest of her group, she kept close but made sure not to get in the way. She had no magic and only a wooden spindle for a weapon. She wasn’t sure how much good she could do, but wanted to help in whatever way she could.

“Be careful,” she whispered to Reims, knowing he was likely to charge right in.

Rose was more cautious. She approached the barrier even as others began to attack it. She stabbed at it with the point of her spindle but didn’t expect it to do much.

She saw Mechelen out of the corner of her eye. Worry seized her. Rose didn’t want any of her friends to get hurt.

“Mechelen!” she called, even though her instinct was to shout for Tilly. “Are you okay?”

Super Sailor Perdita, Senshi of Plenty

“Well, I feel pretty useless here,” Perdita said.

Her magic wasn’t going to be of any help. She’d known that as soon as they’d entered the building. Usually she could find a makeshift weapon, but she’d feel too bad about potentially destroying any of Urania’s things to scrounge around for something usable. That left her with very few options — her own body, mostly.

She spared a brief, consoling smile toward Connie, who’d just recently expressed the fear of being useless. Perdita certainly empathized with that fear now.

“We’ll be okay,” she decided. “Come on. Belmont’ll probably do the most damage out of the three of us, but we can still try to help.”

So Perdita rammed into the barrier, putting her weight into it.

Ephesus, Knight of the Moon

Ephesus was still glowing a bit from the compliments Amarynthos had given him. Well. Had given his pretty, glowing star, but that was close enough to him.

He didn’t linger, not wanting to be separated by the others, and feeling a little flustered when he realized his friends had seen them and either didn’t appreciate the display or had looked away to give them privacy in a room full of others.

Cynthus especially made him flush, and he’d momentarily buried his face in his hands against Amarynthos’s chest until he was sure the red had died down.

It wasn’t as though he and Amarynthos had never kissed in front of them before! He couldn’t help it when he was so happy to be there with him. Maybe not fighting Chaos, but… being with friends and supporting each other.

Now that they’d entered the room with the concentrated Chaos, Ephesus held tightly to Amarynthos’s hand for a moment longer. He looked up, his expression determined, and then released his hand so he could grip his staff with both. Following his friends, he swung at the barrier, hoping it would be enough to do something.

Connie, Squire of Chronos

Oh no, she didn’t like that Perdita felt useless!

“You’re not!” she insisted, and held out her weapon -- a little potted tree. She was definitely not going to throw it at the barrier. That would be too mean! She supposed she could pull off her shoes to throw at the barrier, or maybe they could have collected some books from the last room to throw at it!

No no, that wouldn’t do. She was sure their host would be upset about that. Although getting rid of the Chaos seemed pretty important.

“Yeah, we’ll be okay! We’ll just pretend this is like a bunch of really mean bugs,” she decided with a shiver.

Securing her little tree back under her robes so it wouldn’t get hurt, she rushed forward and tried to kick at the barrier.