October 29, 2023

Hook

Along Treacherous Lines VI - Dreams of Battle [S&S]

Plot Synopsis

The battle with General Hu Lan kicks off. Sunflight Tsorren, refusing to dirty his hands with a battle against a bunch of “ruffians”, dissolves into water and flows towards the party. He greets Wisteria, his old student, and leaves behind an odd crystal that restores everyone’s vitality and power before leaving.

As the battle commences, the General calls in reinforcements - one of which is a sniper who dueled Rilo years ago and got them exiled from Shanzhu. Rilo is nearly killed, but is saved at the last moment as Kentaro strikes with his Tiger Claws and knocks Lan off balance. As the battle rages on, the party manages to suppress the General’s forces and guard Zuanshi Wei from harm. As his allies are nearly all dispatched, Hu Lan is ended as Yugon, revealed to be the Blood Hawks’ old Kasha, bashes his head to bits. Leaving no time for contemplation, the party retreats to the bridge, where Zheng Chen arrives just in time with a portal to teleport the group to her tower in Tiancheng City.

Kentaro brought the freed students, while Yugon dragged a bleeding, unconscious new Kasha through the portal with him. On the other side, Kentaro gives a rallying monologue to the students and Raiden, while Yugon has a tense conversation with the Kasha once he comes to. The Kasha mocks him, eventually asserting that one of them should die in the room. Yugon presents a knife, and the two have a brief scuffle before Yugon chokes him against the wall and drags him, struggling, up to Chen’s office. Hearing the scuffle, Raiden leaves Kentaro’s speech and finds Wei at his lab, keeping a silent guard to assure his safety.

He interrupts a conversation Rilo is having, where he asked about the health hazards the train may pose to Chongbai. Worried for his father, he convinces Chen to open a portal there and retrieve him. Niko Kasai is confused, but trusts his son and agrees to go. He asks what has been going on, but Rilo dances around the question and Niko eventually gives up the subject.

Yugon storms in just as Rilo and Niko’s conversation begins to wrap up. He demands Chen take him to Zhufu Reef so he can strand Kasha there. She refuses, and Yugon gets as far as threatening her with his weapon before she leads him down to the basement and blue-fields the new Kasha - ordering everyone to calm down. Yugon remarks it isn’t fair and walks off to his room.

As night falls, the party dreams… Rilo has a brief meeting with an exasperated, overworked Anubis, Yugon confronts his old self, and Kentaro is admonished for his fervent nationalism by his guardian spirit. They wake up in the middle of the night, and the former two go for a walk. Rilo runs into Zuanshi Wei, also unable to sleep, who shares with him about Hua’s actions and how he had only ever wanted to construct the Ars Machina to help people.

Yugon, meanwhile, makes his way out into the garden where he runs into Chen by a fountain reading a spellbook. She speaks to him in vague terms about her own past mistakes relating to the Fist of God calamity, revealing that she has been alive for at least 1,500 years. With their parting words, she urges him to forgive himself and allow his life to move forward.

Noteworthy Postgame Events