Hope, all ye who enter here

"Some... fun. You want to have some fun, sparring. Ohhhhhhhh, little girl, you have no idea how far out of your depth you are."

The flickering flame holds its cupped palm to the sky, vibrant orange embers swirling into it to condense into a tightly-packed sphere that it looks to before turning to Nora. Mouth curled into that terrible unnatural smile it crushes the sphere, reeling its arm back before throwing what seems to be a scatter of orangish dust that sweeps past Nora, catching the light and sparkling as it comes to rest in a loose cloud around her.

"That stunt you just pulled... If I want to kill any of you I have to do it all at once, picking on just one of you means the others will keep them alive. Noble, clever!"

Malice lifts three fingers pressed together, body flickering with more twisted laughter as it tilts its head to keep its eyes on Nora, and...

"So let's test how much you can take."

Snaps. And a fleck of that sparkling dust explodes right behind Nora. And another in front of her, the way first blast would have propelled her. And another, as the cloud reveals itself a cage bouncing her from explosion to explosion and testing the limits of that connection with the others. Even if she were able to right herself, another explosion would be quick to trigger in her path or where she was standing, no safe haven in this cage who's boundaries she can barely even discern for sure.

"Yes, lets see just how much you can take! Since you all want to fight so badly let's see exactly how much punishment you can take!"

Flames gather in both its hands, and it crushes them as well to throw another scatter Nora's way and double the number of explosions. The larger arm it lifts in a massive overhead swing that cracks the ground on impact, explosions shortly after erupting at the feet of the combatants. One directly in the way of Raine's charge, another in the path of FLord's charge, and others at the feet of Patrick and Niki, another at Kalmaro's feet, and one last one under Raz's prone body.

"Don't be so presumptuous as to think yours is the only negativity fueling me, fake. I saw so much misery and suffering throughout the universe, and even now, all of those things are with me. You can't cast aside sorrow... And so, I've accepted all of it. The sorrow and hatred and misery left in the wake of every story, every failure masquerading as a victory at cost. Even if you were to kill those feelings in yourselves they exist, and they're part of me."

Malice cracks its neck, scoffing.

"You think you're powerful, invulnerable, above this and beyond threat. But you were on the verge of dying not too long ago. If I were to cast you back to that darkness it wouldn't really be all that long until you faded, would it? The difference between you and me is I don't need this, I don't need the trials and tribulations of a bunch of snot-nosed brats to fuel me. It's just a nice snack."

Turning to Patrick, it chuckles, the blinding corn strikes knocking it back a few steps and forcing it to lift its arm to shield.

"Peh... And, you. You'll embody positivity? Alright then... Do you think your belief in your cause is stronger than mine? You think that hope is stronger than negativity? Or that the hope of a bunch of loser teenagers can stand up to the hopelessness of a universe? And I thought the fake was presumptuous."

Malice chuckles.

"...I am a flame. I was born a flame, born of that Fraymotif, Temper Symphonic, that calls forward flames tied to the emotional state of their caster. Flames that would heal. Flames that would cleanse. Flames that would take, and flames that would give. But in anger... flames that would burn. Unquenchable flames that would burn, beyond the lifespan of any natural flame. Not wind not water nor time would put those flames that were me out, only... resolution. Or running out of fuel.

Do you get it now?"

The creature cups its hand, flames swirling around it like a twister scattering embers in its immediate vicinity.

"Do you understand what I'm saying? This existence was born fragile, but resolute. Until it had burned through the rage that called it it would. Not. Stop, would never cease burning. And I'm connected now, to so much more than one person's misery. You can't kill a flame that won't go out and these flames that are me will never fade. If you quelled all the misery in the universe I'd still have enough to last a lifetime. That's what you're facing, something that exists beyond life and death. And, you probably still want to fight. You probably still believe your hope is a match for the truth. You think its your moral victory if you go down fighting, I'll bet! If you're not fighting to win..."

Malice brings its hand down to punch the ground, another explosive wave rushing through the area meant to wipe all away as it laughs maniacally.

"Then just what the hell ARE you fighting for?! Because it sounds a lot like for your own selfish peace of mind to me!!!"

Flames lick at the ground in the aftermath, smaller fires scattered throughout in the wake of that strike. And Malice chuckles: an attack on everyone would throw a wrench in the attempt to diffuse damage by sharing it. And it had no problem with nuking the area. It had been a good idea but in the face of overwhelming power? Would amount to very little.

"...You talk too much."

A voice, that hadn't been heard in a while. Malice narrows its eyes and turns to find it, fixating on...!

"...Hehehehe. Shouldn't you be dead, already?"

His chest heaves with every labored pant, arms hanging limply at his sides. His clothes are tattered from the rain of attacks and one lens of his glasses is shattered, all in all a raggedy mess. In one of those arms, a spear. In the other, clutched so tightly his nails had drawn blood, a cluster of vibrant pink petals. Some spill out from between his knuckles, and he lifts it to his chest with a deep breath. Petals, dancing behind the rest of the group as well. The very same given to them before they embarked on this battle, now, like a brace, or a comforting hand on the back. Their original bearers fresh in their minds as their feel a little restored by them.

"...Something like you can't or won't understand it. And I can't speak for everyone but... You asked why we fight. The answer's real simple, honestly.

It's to move forward."

Raz's expression tightens as he kicks off his backfoot to charge in, clutching his spear with both hands as he drives it forward in a skewering stab. And his target laughs every step of his approach, throwing its head back with raucous laughter as it swings its arm and offsets the strike with a localized explosion.

"To move forward? hAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, WHAT KIND OF BULLSHIT ARE YOU ON ABOUT NOW?! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha, you, you're an idiot! You're a total idiot! And the only reason you're not dead... Those 'hopes' your friends shared with you, those things are giving strength to stand! But that's ALL it is! You can't win! You can't MOVE forwarD! You can't accomplish ANYTHING!"

It's laughing. Laughing so hard it hurts, this, might be more pain than its suffered through the entirety of this farce. And that thought makes it laugh even harder. It snaps, an explosion directly in front of it engulfing Raz, and once more, another snap, another explosion. And it makes to throw another in for good measure but three gnarled claws divide the explosion from bottom to top, and a golden spear lances from the gap to embed in the creature's shoulder. Suddenly, that spear is a rifle, and Malice can just barely make out Raz through the gap in flames, finger on the trigger. Barrel in its shoulder.

"Seriously you talk way too goddamn much!!"

Click. A golden explosion blows Malice's arm clean off, the monster sputtering incomprehensibly as its caught somewhere between its fitful laughter and sounds of shock and pain. The blowback from the blast sends Raz flying backward but he rights himself with a flip in midair and lands with a skid, crossing both weapons before dashing back into the fray! Malice meanwhile takes a stumbling step back, expression flipping out as the flames that form it distort and bend, and its form surges, flames roaring like a wildfire as it gains another, oversized arm ending in claws to replace its second loss. Malice lifts both arms and brings them down in an overhead meant to crush Raz.

"SPARE ME YOUR OPINIONS THEY MEAN JACK SHIT! You think these small injuries, these small wins, mean ANYTHING?! You're deluding yourself! YOU CAN'T WIN!!!"

And rather then dodge he lifts his crossed weapons, willing a shield around them as he pushes back against the crushing blow with everything he can muster. Shrinking under it, and losing ground when it starts smashing one arm down repeatedly to try and break his stance and him with it, but making to press back and stand tall with barred teeth and trembling arms as he redoubles his defense.

"So we find another way! If we can't beat you, we fight on, until we've found another path! Living is all about working endlessly to find that way forward, even when it seems unclear, even when it seems like no options exist! We fight, because we're alive, and that means we don't stagnate, we don't accept hopelessness! We find a way..."

Driving his weapons inward he puts all his strength into an upward swing to knock Malice's arms away, glaring defiantly into its eyes.

"To turn it into strength!"

And in that moment of complete focus on Raz, that moment of vulnerability with its arms knocked away, is an advantage for Clear to press. Her fist collides with Malice's face head on, digging into it for a moment that seems to last longer than it really does before she sends it flying through the air, with an impact so tremendous the shockwave puts out a few of the scattered flames on the ground. Malice skids the ground a couple times before landing in a crumpled heap, flames distorting as its body warps, surges upward, and somehow get it back on its feet, a little shaken obviously.

Kalmaro attempts to jump out of the way of the explosions, but is a bit too late and goes flying. He lands with a splat, bruised but still intact. Again, hooray for being spineless?

"3Э Unquenchable flame? Noo such thing... 3Э" He gets up, trying to make his way back over to Niki and the others. "3Э There is always a way too stoop a fire... Even withoout remooval oof its fuel soource. Water, fooam, carboon diooxide, a thermoonuclear inksploosioon... 3Э" He wonders about that last one though, whether or not it's actually a thing. "3Э We doon't have too remoove yoour fuel soource... we just have too ooverwhelm it with soomething stroonger. 3Э"

FLord breathes a labored breath. Holy fuck everything was pain.

He tries to get up, but collapses in a yelp of pain. It is too much.

He tries to shape some of the energy connected to him into healing, but... everything is going...

The white energy streaming off of FLord begins to flicker, before fading away. He is still breathing though, but that might not last if the connection to the pawns gets cut.

He doesn't know how he isn't unconscious yet. He understands how he is still alive, sure, but those are two seperate things.

Through the blood based connection, FLord can feel something... faint. It's not on the network, but... no, it was, it just wasn't direct.

It was something further... he could tell that everyone in the room was connected to it, even if it wasn't obvious.

And that connection went outwards, and he could feel... more.

It wasn't a soul, but... if he had to describe it, it could be considered... the soil of a soul?

He didn't even know how he was seeing this. His domain was connections, not souls.

But through it... he could see obvious connections between Raine, and all the Kat's. Siren, and Jiggly. Clear, and... something familiar.

He looked deeper. No, they didn't have connections to eachother. Niki wasn't connected to Seth, even though he could see that Seth was connected to Chronos.

But he was connected too, and with that...

He rose.

Malice lifts its arm to block the falling cornucopia chandelier, pushing back against it with eyes narrowed to slits. Putting its strength into knocking it back it's thrown off by the arrow rain Patrick perforates its with, the falling attack managing to pin its arm to the ground.

Paradox Space didn't send you to tie up its loose ends, it sent us to tie them up instead. It didn't put us here to get killed by you, oh no. It put YOU here to get killed by US.

It's not just my own peace of mind. Not just my friends', not just the ones trapped in this darkness... but for all of existence! No matter how temporary, no matter how fleeting!

It's expression twists into inhumane as Raine comes down from above, its form swirling inward like a nexus of flames before two clawed hands thrust toward her to stop her with a raging torrent of black flames surging like a pillar.

She might have lived a lie in her memories, she might have had her low points... but there was one thing she was never lacking, and that was Spirit. She had friends and family amongst these people and its now my duty to protect them! Just like she did!

Its form flickers, and it lets out some guttural sound of disgust as the intensity of its attack kicks up a notch. Enough to burn her to a crisp then crisp the ashes until there isn't a single thing left, until that stupid idea of hers is just a memory, that stupid idea of her, is just a memory. This isn't a loss, it isn't losing, it knows this on the level that's still rational. It'd be one thing if it was a possibility, loss, but, its futile. They'll bang their heads against it endlessly.

So why does it piss it off so much? Why?

And out of the corner of its eye it sees something. Raz, with his arm outstretched toward the blast. No... toward, her, in it. And it realizes, it clicks, and its howling in rage now with another burst of power to char her.

But she's there. The shield that he put his all into maintaining in front of her, the aura against the heat that could only go so far. The shield at her feet behind her, a bracing point. And the card cupped in his hand, that he crushes with a shatter like glass before holding his hand close, as if bracing something in front of him. That wildfire that for all its growing power stalls against the arms of that familiar mechanical knight that's appeared behind Raine, all but one of four blocking as that last one one braces gently against her back.

"Kick its ass."

Words he says simply, words mirrored by his knight, before he pushes forward with a small smile. And his mirror pushes, driving Raine through the flames like a spear. And she emerges to shock, and fury and disbelief and a maelstrom of emotions that can barely register on Malice's face before she comes down on it with a meteoric attack that drives it into the ground with a rumble felt through the whole arena.

The flames shudder an eb as one hand presses to the ground to force it up, shaky, shaken. But... that doesn't make any sense. That attack hurt, but that's all it did. All these attacks, all this is pain it willingly subjects itself to is meaningless. They might as well by trying to punch a brick wall down, that's all they're really doing. Pounding bloody stumps against it eventually, it isn't any worse for the wear from this assault.

So why does it piss it off so much? Flames swirl outward then in, as it reforms standing at full height with one fist tightened and eyes narrowed to slits as it sweeps its gaze through the assembled.

Out of my depth... I've always been out of my depth, sir. But that doesn't prevent me from trying.

Its eye twitches as it lowers its head, both fists clenched tightly now.