Kit tries her luck

[Kitsune106d]

Let's do this then. Kit will approach the paint brush.

[Aeromage]

Kit approaches the brush. From the ceiling, the darkness of the dome gathers and plunges towards the pedestal, engulfing it and swirling upwards into a new form.

An androgynous figure stands upon the podium, made of pitch-black energy in fine noble's clothing, features and details picked out in a dusting of starlight and lines of astral brilliance. In its hand is the starlit paintbrush, which it flourishes upward.

Four rectangular constellations wink into being on the dome, each linked with shining silvery lines and overlaid with a shimmering picture of a door.

The figure sweeps the brush downward. The painted constellations shatter, starlight-pigment rushing from the ceiling and swirling around the room before being sucked into the paintbrush.
As one, all four doors to the area vanish, leaving blank walls of Starmetal in their place.

Tsatmeiyel was prepared, and gets a preemptive scan off before the battle starts.

Kit's opponent is an Artist of the Midnight Canvas (Spirit & Astral Being, Level 65 Elite).
It's a powerful Astral & Darkness element Spirit that absorbs both of those elements, is somewhat resistant to Light, and has a notable weakness to Air. Its skillset mainly revolves around setting up constellation-effects that grow progressively stronger as time goes on that can buff itself, debuff its enemies, call down repeating attacks and summon in Astral-element things to assist it. It's also capable of dealing large-scale AOE Astral-element attacks and sacrificing constellations it creates to deal extremely damaging attack-effects.
It's notably able to traverse battlespaces, have its summons do the same, and ignore summon-blocks due to its summons coming from a nebulously-defined 'beyond'.
Effects that call in clouds hamper the effectiveness of its constellations (although it's able to fall back on Darkness attacks and rapid-fire single-target potent falling-star techniques in that case), requiring it to sacrifice a constellation to clear the weather away.

Thanks to their Haste-effects, Kit and the Dream are just about fast enough to go first.

[Kitsune106d]

Kit will use an overdriven attack, time element, trying to attack the being first and take it out, the dream using:
Tide of Joyful Dreams- 100,000 Damage, May Heal, May unsummon targets below Level 45, May remove debuffs from sources below Level 45 from targets, May inflict Invigorated, May inflict Stat Boost, 1 hit against 20,000, Dream or Dream & Water & Air, 300,000 MP, doing dream and water and air damage.

Kit has a lot of dodge, and is trying to avoid being hit as she will also use her abjuration to try to resist the astral attacks.

[Aeromage]

Battle is joined!

Constellations wink into being in the black dome above as the Artist's passive start-of-battle effects bring them into being. The Constellation of the Meteor Tengu and Constellation of the Blessed Shrine are set!

Kit unleashes a massive blast of Time-element mana, ripping into her starry foe and flooding the room with stuttering moments. The Artist takes Heavy damage!
Tsatmeiyel follows up with a dream-flood of water and air, the half-unreal tide surging forth and into the opponent for Moderate damage!

The Artist raises its brush, whirling it in the air. Streaks of starlight shoot to the dome, painting a constellation upon it.
The Constellation of the Heavenly Archer is set, and immediately rains a cascade of Astral Arrows down upon its foes.
Kit manages to reflexively defend with abjuration, blocking the shining torrent from herself and preventing Tsatmeiyel from getting hit, too.

The round ticks.
The Constellations of the Meteor Tengu, Blessed Shrine and Heavenly Archer grow brighter!
The Constellation of the Heavenly Archer unleashes another barrage of blinding bolts upon Kit and the Dream at the round's start! Kit's shield holds, but Tsatmeiyel is caught by a ricochet for Light damage.
The Constellation of the Blessed Shrine heals the Artist for a Light amount.

[Kitsune106d]

Kit tries again, not an overdrive but a standard attack, varying up her time element powers as she speeds up and stutters the artist. She is trying to end this quickly as the dream uses the dream flood again. She then focuses on defense again, hoping she can hold it out.
Tide of Joyful Dreams- 100,000 Damage, May Heal, May unsummon targets below Level 45, May remove debuffs from sources below Level 45 from targets, May inflict Invigorated, May inflict Stat Boost, 1 hit against 20,000, Dream or Dream & Water & Air, 300,000 MP, doing dream and water and air damage.

[Aeromage]

Kit strikes another hammer-blow of Time against the astral painter, sending it reeling for Heavy damage again! She seems to be hitting it at just the right moments to send it off-guard.
The Dream follows up with another Tide, but the Artist speed-paints a shield-constellation, sending a Starmetal Bulwark hurtling from the roof to clang into the way, diverting the flood before it can even hit.

The Artist whirls its brush in the air once again, adding the Constellation of the Broken Wand to the mix! Kit feels her magical power suffer a debuff as the overlaid image of a snapped magical implement winks into being in the increasingly-populous darkness above.

The round ticks.
The Constellations of the Meteor Tengu, Blessed Shrine, Heavenly Archer and Snapped wand grow brighter!
The Constellation of the Meteor Tengu flares brilliantly and plunges to the ground, summoning an empowered Meteor Tengu to the fight!
The Constellation of the Blessed Shrine is at full radiance! The Artist is healed for a Moderate amount!
The Constellation of the Heavenly Archer is at full radiance! A punishing barrage of meteorite-arrows rain upon Kit and the Dream, dealing Minor damage to Kit and Moderate damage to the Dream! Both narrowly avoid being hit by Voidstruck: Astral Echoes.

[Kitsune106d]

Kit instead goes for a melee strike, being pretty strong there as well as she strikes, trying to steal the Artist's time to buff herself as she strikes fiercely and straight.

the dream switches tactics... it uses: number or the number of any previous round in the same battle, Air & Time, 3,000,000 MP
Word of the Beginning- Summons 1 Fantasmic below Level 55 from the Enemy List that is normally fightable for drops, Life, 1,000,000 MP


trying to summon a cloud fantasmic that can help counter this being.

kit: melee attack with hammer of langerous years
the dream, summon.

she is a soul puncher:
Soul-Puncher- (Passive Ability, Other: Hero) Possessor gains +15,000 Magical Attack and Melee Attack, Possessor may ignore the Constant Effects "Fully Disembodied" and "Incorporeal", Possessor may attack individuals of equal or lower Level who are in different battlespaces (to a max of Level 98), The Level range of entities possessor can target in other battlespaces is increased on Noix as an RP effect
Planetary of Time's Sword- (Weapon, Sword, Time, 190,000,000 Gold) +190,000 Melee Attack, +1,900,000 HP as a non-stacking bonus, +190,000 STR, +190,000 CON, 160% Critical, 260% To Hit, Wielder's allies gain +8,000 to all stats as a non-stacking bonus, Wielder must be Level 40 or greater


Attack:
+30,080 melee attack
+ 35,430 Magical attack
160% Critical
260% to Hit

Hammer of Langerous Years- (Technique Ability, Other: Temporal Primarch) Possessor may use 'Hammer of Langerous Years' in conjunction with a 'Melee Attack' or 'Melee Overdrive' action so long as no other technique is used and possessor is Time element. Said action gains +2,000 Melee Attack, and target acquires a non-stacking debuff that causes it to have a 50% chance of choosing to skip its next action if not Immune to Charm.


the sword s being used and she is trying to inflict enough damage to kill the artist or ditrupt it as she will focus some on defense after too.

[Aeromage]

The Dream summons up a Face Of The Drifting Clouds (Fantasmic, Level 50), a huge cloud-sculpted mask that constantly exudes a billowing pall of cloud cover. Its skillset is mostly focused around scan-obfuscation, Air-element AOE attacks, ally-focused dodge-increase, and muddling who on its side of battle gets targeted. It is, however, entirely focused groundward and weak against things from 'above' it.
Kit doesn't think it's going to last very long, but it could give her a bit of a reprieve.

Clouds spill out through the air, blocking off the sight of the dome-ceiling and its constellations. The effects of the Artist's constellations are immediately set back to their lowest level (although not cancelled entirely).

Kit finally opts to use one of her plethora of techniques! While her opponent isn't incorporeal- thus rendering Soul-Puncher irrelevant, she still has a sword and brings down the Hammer of Langerous Years with a terrible, inevitable weight, dealing Moderate damage.
The debuff lands, although it doesn't trigger this turn.


The enemy astral spirit is looking very much the worse for wear.


The Meteor Tengu has only just been summoned! It cannot act this round!



The Artist looks up at the peacefully-drifting Face obscuring its canvas and dampening its power.

This cannot stand.

Reaching skyward with the brush, it sweeps it down with a shower of shattering sparks as it invokes the Night of Falling Stars.
The Constellation of the Meteor Tengu is torn from the heavens and sent cannoning into the ground as a stellar bombardment of pure, devastating Astral force, ripping into and through the Fantasmic and dealing it Lethal damage, killing it outright.
The force of the attack is, however, buffered enough by the Face taking the brunt of it that Kit and the Dream manage to avoid taking any damage at all.

The Constellations, revealed once more, shine with the power they had before they were obscured.


The round ticks.
The Constellation of the Snapped Wand grows brighter!
The Constellation of the Blessed Shrine is at full radiance! The Artist is healed for a Moderate amount!
The Constellation of the Heavenly Archer is at full radiance! A punishing barrage of meteorite-arrows rain upon Kit and the Dream... and utterly miss both of them, the duo having managed to prepare themselves for the assault this time.
The Constellation of the Snapped Wand is at full radiance! Magic- and Magical Attack-based actions have a chance of outright failure in addition to being depowered!

[Kitsune106d]

Kit melee attacks again with


Planetary of Time's Sword- (Weapon, Sword, Time, 190,000,000 Gold) +190,000 Melee Attack, +1,900,000 HP as a non-stacking bonus, +190,000 STR, +190,000 CON, 160% Critical, 260% To Hit, Wielder's allies gain +8,000 to all stats as a non-stacking bonus, Wielder must be Level 40 or greater


Attack:
+30,080 melee attack
+ 35,430 Magical attack
160% Critical
260% to Hit

Hammer of Langerous Years- (Technique Ability, Other: Temporal Primarch) Possessor may use 'Hammer of Langerous Years' in conjunction with a 'Melee Attack' or 'Melee Overdrive' action so long as no other technique is used and possessor is Time element. Said action gains +2,000 Melee Attack, and target acquires a non-stacking debuff that causes it to have a 50% chance of choosing to skip its next action if not Immune to Charm.


the sword s being used and she is trying to inflict enough damage to kill the artist or ditrupt it as she will focus some on defense after too.

The dream of tomorrow calls forth fruit clouds to drain down on the pair, to heal them.
Beckon Gummy Fruit-Clouds- 250,000 Damage, Heals, Air & Whimsy, 1 hit against 50,000, 0 MP

It will try to keep the clouds around to dampen the night sky!
KIt: melee attack
Dream: Beckon Gummy Fruit-Clouds- 250,000 Damage, Heals, Air & Whimsy, 1 hit against 50,000, 0 MP

[Aeromage]

Kit raises the Planetary of Time's Sword high, and begins to sweep it down as a Hammer of Langerous Years once more!
The sword pulses with the power of Time! Kit has synched the god-blade's temporal pattern perfectly with her swing!
What would otherwise be a slow, inevitable swing is abruptly hypersped up, ripping through the chronomantic fabric of reality and bypassing the sacrificial constellation-defense-counter the Artist was about to bring to bear in an effort to stop itself taking lethal damage!

The astral spirit blows apart in a glittering cloud of night-borne stardust, its outfit remaining as an empty set of starlight-limned noble's clothing woven from the fabric of the night.

The Constellations above sputter and fade, each star winking out in succession as the overlaying images drift apart as dimming clouds of silvery light.

The Meteor Tengu, without its summoner to anchor it in the absence of the Constellation it sprang from, fades away into nothingness.


Kit gets:
4* the XP for a Level 65 entity

Artist of the Midnight Canvas' Raiment- (Armor, Astral Raiment, Astral, 100,000,000 Gold) +100,000 Defense, 50% Astral Resistance, +100,000 Defense Against Astral, +100,000 MIN, +100,000 SPI, +1,000,000 MP, Wearer may choose to equip this armor as an Armor x0 alongside a Ward or Aura armor, so long as no other Armor x0 is equipped; Wearer may have an additional 5 Empowered Constellations set at a time; Wearer's Empowered Constellations that provide a stat buff or stat increase have said value increased by +20,000 as a non-stacking effect per Constellation

*Starmetal Brush of the Night Canvas- (Weapon, Wand, Astral, 120,000,000 Gold) +120,000 Magical Attack, +120,000 Ranged Attack, +1,200,000 MP, if wielder possesses no secondary MP pools, wielder obtains a secondary MP pool that may be used to pay MP costs for non-Overcrash actions involving Astral Magic Spells but not for other purposes (including keeping wielder from dying by possesses-0-MP-based conditionals) that contains 2,400,000 MP, Wielder may have an additional 5 Empowered Constellations set at a time, Wielder may choose up to three spells or abilities wielder possesses that may set Empowered Constellations and choose for said Empowered Constellations to automatically be set at the start of battle, Wielder's Empowered Constellations that possess Phases may begin with a Phase of 2, Wielder may choose for one of wielder's Empowered Constellations to have their Phase incremented by an additional 1 at the start of each round, Wielder may choose for one of wielder's Empowered Constellations that possess Phases to have their Max Phase value increase by 2 (with this effect not being able to influence the Max Phase value of another Constellation until the first is removed)


The Dream beckons in healing gummy clouds. Kit is at about 85% Max HP, and Tsatmeiyel is at about 75%.
Kit also gets the feeling that if she didn't end that fight so quickly, things may have rapidly spiraled out of her control.


The huge room is silent, expectant. The vast dome of night above is blank and empty. The walls remain devoid of doors. The brush glitters.

[Kitsune106d]

Kit will take up that brush and starts to try to paint the ceiling with starlight, flying up using the lance as she will move to paint the ceiling! She'll try to see if she can't make the constellation of Volatilis.

[Aeromage]

Brush in hand, Kit flies up to the night-black ceiling, set on creating a new constellation!
While her level grants her broad competence at a number of things, Kit doesn't actually possess any art-related skills. She is not an Artist, nor has she any Artisan or Crafter skills (apart from Polar Elven Toymaking Skill, which isn't really relevant).

Undeterred, she paints her best impression of the Floating Isle of Volatilis from memory out of starlight! There's a mountain there, and it goes out there...

Kit floats back to take in her handiwork as the constellation rearranges itself, a silvery image of what it depicts swimming into view.

Erm. Well, perhaps she was a little too ambitious. Or she didn't remember properly. Or her hand slipped a few times.

The resulting image is of an island plummeting from the heavens.

The painted stars that make up the constellation glow, wisps of light drifting from them and congealing into a single point of starlight that drops into Kit's hands as a spell.

Kit gets:

Reveal Constellation of the Falling Isle- (Spell, Astral Magic, Air & Earth, 500,000 MP, 50,000,000 Gold) Sets the Constellation of the Falling Isle as an Empowered Constellation for caster, said constellation begins with a Phase of 1 at the start of every battle and has a Max Phase of 5, its phase resets between battles, its phase increases at the end of each round during which its posesssor conducted a Magical Attack action, at the start of the first round in which its phase is full, this constellation's Phase is set back to 1 and possessor summons a Large Structure from the Enemy List of equal or lower level to possessor that is normally fightable for drops that naturally possesses +10,000 to all of its listed stats, and all individuals in the same battlespace (including possessor and summons summoned through this spell) take an amount of Air & Earth Flat Damage equal to the summoned Large Structure's CON * 100


It looks like there's potentially room for a few more constellations up there. Perhaps five or so.

The Dream cautions Kit to remember there were door-constellations (presumably) corresponding to the room's exits when they first came in. Forgetting to draw at least one door would probably end up trapping them in the room.

[Kitsune106d]

Kit flies back up to draw 3 doors then, having the dream scan and check the doors if they do work as she hopes this will.

[Aeromage]

Is she painting one of the door-constellations to fall in the direction she came from, or is she having them all lead further into the dungeon/other places?

[Kitsune106d]

One is drawn where she came from. 3 more are drawn further into the dungeon.

[Aeromage]

Doors are painted, and once again doors appear. The walls shimmer and shift, blank surfaces being replaced with the doorways Kit originally saw- one leading back the way she came, two to other parts of the Starmetal Spire, and one to the Aetherium Spire, the strength of which the Dream could not gauge.

One space remains in the now rather-crowded dome.

[Kitsune106d]

She will attempt to one of the great moons, Taokage, the moon of magic, here, curious if she can do this. she is an envoy of Taokage after all.



Basic Lunar Element Attunement: Taokage- (Passive Ability, Moongazer) If Taokage is the current Governing Lunar Body, possessor may choose to treat Magic as said Governing Lunar Body's Associated Element.

Envoy of Taokage- (Passive Ability, Moongazer) Possessor may choose to have their spells, abilities, and items respond as though Taokage is the current Governing Lunar Body as an effect that does not stack with other Moongazer abilities whose names include 'Envoy of'

'Involved in the Creation of the Moon Taokage during [UNIVERSAL EXISTENCE FAILURE] on Seirei'

[Aeromage]

Kit paints a semblance of Taokage on the ceiling!

Moons are not stars. A constellation cannot be created in this fashion.
Similarly, Starmetal is not Moon-aspected. The painting cannot resolve itself as a Lunar Art.

The image swirls for a bit before eventually distilling itself.

Kit gets:

Esoteric Blessing of Taokage: The Stars Sing With Magic- (Spell, Elemental Blessing, Magic, 25,000 MP, 50,000,000 Gold) Caster gains a non-stacking buff that provides its possessor with the optional choice to gain or solely become the element Magic if they possess the element Astral, to have equipped items that possess the element Astral to gain or solely become the element Magic, to have any actions taken by possessor involving Astral Magic gain or solely become the element Magic, to have any instances of Damage or Flat Damage that would apply to possessor that possess the element Astral to gain or solely become the element Magic, and to have any instances of damage, flat damage, effects or entities that would result from Astral Magic gain or solely become the element Magic

[Kitsune106d]

She will take that blessing then will head to one of the doorways that lead deeper into the starmetal spire.

[Aeromage]

Kit passes through one of the doorways, and into the full glory of the night.

She stands on a long walkway above a precipitous drop, the sky overhead a blazing river of stars, cascading from the heavens as starfalls split by huge starmetal pillars, plunging into the abyss below where faint light shimmers.
At the far end of the walkway, stairs rise up to an elevated platform below a great statue of a beautiful- and oddly familiar-looking- goddess, holding a huge disc of black metal, a single star shining brilliantly towards the top-left of its face. Before the disc, a key of starmetal glittering with such a concentration of starlight that it may as well be pure silvery-white floats, rotating gently.
To the statue's left and right, a beautiful starmetal treasure chest sits, each a work of art in itself.